Team Orange
by Peter Rhydon
Summary: This is my very first story. Based on the first Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, it tells the adventures of a human boy who finds himself turned into a Pokémon and he forms a rescue team with a friendly Mudkip.
1. A Shocking Discovery

**CHAPTER 1: A SHOCKING DISCOVERY**

Everything began with a great black. The darkness. I felt myself floating inside an immense black ocean, devoid of light and devoid of gravity. I looked all around me with the hope of seeing any kind of glimmer in the horizon. But nothing. Absolutely nothing… No trace of color anywhere. Only black. The black so dark, so keen that it becomes blinding. The black which passes throughout the eyes like a laser and then comes to tickle the sensitive nooks of your mind.

I was prisoner of a gloomy world where senses seem to become non-existent. I couldn't see anything, nor hear anything, nor smell anything. No light, no sound. Nothing to touch, nothing to feel. Just where was I anyway? Was I dead? Was I comatose? That wasn't natural at all. What was happening to me?

I stayed there, all alone, floating in this dark infinite. I looked on each side once again. Nothing. Even by trying to lean so I could check out my body parts, I couldn't see anything. Everything had disappeared.

Finally, I started to feel something. A breeze seemed to come out from that infinite, non-existent horizon. A light breeze which began to wrap me up. What a feeling… It was the first sign that something could break up that void which was my prison. This blow felt so liberating. It became heavier and heavier without becoming violent. No, this breeze felt like it would become my saviour.

And then, while I was starting to suddendly take pleasure of that peaceful zephyr, I perceived something that loosely felt like a sound of some kind. Yes, it was a sound. I couldn't clearly say what it was, but it definitely was a sound. I could hear it for a moment or two, and then it went into silence. It was brief, but that moment seemed way much longer than it actually was. After a silence as brief as that noise, a new sound came out. It lasted as much time as the first one, but I had the impression that it was louder. Another silence. Would I hear that noise once again? Yes, it came back, even louder. It sounded like a whisper, but it felt like it was deafening to me. That's when I had the weird feeling that this sound was not an ordinary one. It wasn't the breeze that was making that noise. It came from elsewhere. That noise sounded like a call… A voice of some kind…

And each time the voice came back, the louder it sounded. Finally, I thought I understood that this voice was shaping some words, but I couldn't identify them. But as that voice became constantly louder each time it came back, I decided to wait. To wait that the words would take shape by themselves.

̏"Hello?" ̋

That was the first word I could clearly discern. Somebody was calling me, but how could I give an answer?

̎̏"Can you hear me?" ̋

Yes, I could hear it. But who was it? Where was that voice coming from? It was a masculine voice, no doubt about it, but I couldn't see anybody. Was that person visible? Was it a supernatural spirit who only communicates with you through your mind? I searched around me. Still nothing. Only the darkness, the breeze and this mysterious voice.

̎̎̏"Hello? Please, wake up. Wake up." ̋

Wake up? Was I asleep? Or unconscious? It all became clear. I was unconscious indeed and all those signs seemed to indicate that I was slowly regaining consciousness. This darkness… It was clear now, my eyes were closed. This breeze, it was the outside world. This voice… Somebody was near my body and was inciting me to wake up.

Then, suddendly, an intense lightning appeared in the distance. A horizontal line, white and shining, which was growing and getting closer to me. It got closer, and closer, and closer, and it engulfed me. It only lasted for a fraction of second but I felt like time was flowing in slow motion. Oh, what a painful light it was…

A silhouette then appeared in the midst of that light. An oval shape. With something at each end which pointed toward the outside. And in the middle of that shape, something different was pointing upwards.

I finally opened my eyes. I didn't know this innate gesture could require such a superhuman effort. Colors began to come back and they appeared on the silhouette standing in front of me. Blue. Dark and light. And some orange on the extremities. I also saw two black eyes staring at me.

I realized that I was laying down on my back, so I tried to sit up. I felt weak, but I finally put myself in a sitting position.

"You've awaken! Great!", ̋the voice said.

I looked in front of me and I finally saw whose voice it was. It was a Mudkip. He was looking at me carefully and I saw a large smile appearing in his face.

̏"I was worried", ̋he said, ̏"You were unconscious and you weren't responding." ̋

"Well I'm fine now," ̋ I answered, ̏"but… "̋ Then something hit me.

̏"Hey! Have you just talked?" ̋

The Mudkip looked at me with a confused look.

̏"Yes, I have… "̋ A moment of silence. ̏"Is something wrong?" ̋

He was really talking! A talking Mudkip! Oh God, I was dreaming, wasn't I?!

̏"You're really talking!!!" ̋

The Mudkip kept staring at me with the same exact look for a few seconds, then he watched me pensively.

̏"Are you sure you're okay?" ̋

"Well, I'm not so sure now!" ̋

̏"You look weird… Are you trying to make me believe that you've never seen a talking Pokémon before? I don't believe you." ̋

̏"I swear it's the truth! I've never seen a talking Pokémon in all my life!" ̋

̏"Well… The least I could say is that you're really strange for a Charmander…" ̋

̏"But I…" ̋ What? What did he just say?

"What? A Charmander?" ̋

"Well, yes. That's what you are. You're a Charmander…" ̋

I was scared now. He believed I was a Charmander!

This sounded like it was the craziest statement I've ever heard, but something seemed weird to me. I watched that Mudkip carefully. That kind of Pokémon is usually very small, but this one seemed to be quite tall. Actually, his head reached the height of my shoulders. And what's more, he was talking?

I looked at my hands and I instantly unleashed a cry of dismay. My hands and my arms were orange!!! I lowered my head and my eyes a bit more to see the rest of my body, only to discover that my torso was of a yellowish color and that my legs and feet were also orange. Short claws were emerging from the extremities of my feet, where my toes should have been.

I was panicked now. I touched my body with my small hands just to be sure that I was not dreaming. No, everything seemed real.

A horrific vision flashed through my mind… I slowly stretched my left hand behind my body and gently lowered my fingers all along my back. Until I reached something that felt extremely inhuman. Could it be…? I turned my head as far as I could only to realize that my fears were confirmed: I had a tail! A long orange tail ending with a flame!

There was no possible doubt now: I was really a Charmander!!!

The Mudkip was watching the whole scene with astonishment. He didn't seem to know how to react to the show I was giving him unwillingly. He didn't seem to know what to say, either.

̏"Are you alright?" ̋he finally said.

̏"Am I alright?" ̋I repeated, ̏"No, I'm not alright! You see me? I'm a Charmander!" ̋

The look on his face changed once again to a mix of surprise and amusement. Of course, I had just realized that I'd just said the most stupid thing I could say…

"Of course, you're a Charmander." ̋He answered, ̏"What's the matter? You think you're something else?"̋ There was some sense of mockery in his voice, but he was far from being aware of the seriousness in my words, especially of the answer I was about to give him.

"I am not a Charmander! I'm a human!" ̋

The look on the Mudkip's face changed completely. It was undoubtedly the last answer he was expecting.

̏"A human?" ̋ he slowly said.

̏"Yes, a human! A human boy!" ̋ I answered, insistent.

The Mudkip wasn't saying a word. He seemed to be studying me attentively, like he was trying to find out what was human into the Charmander which was standing in front of him.

̏"A human boy?" ̋

I had a sure feeling that he wasn't believing me. But how I could make him believe what I was saying? I looked closely and carefully at myself, once again. My reptilian body of a scorching, fiery color, my long tail… I had to face the facts, there was nothing, in a physical way, that would make believe that I had any human characteristic. I was a Pokémon, at least the apparence of one.

The Mudkip spoke once again: ̏"What happened to you, then? If you're a human, how did you become a Pokémon?"̋ Oh, the trick question…

̏"Well…̋"

I was searching inside my head, trying to understand my own situation, but no clue appeared to me. I thought very hard… No, I had no idea of what was happening. Or what might have happened before.

̏"I don't know…" I finally admitted, ̏"Everything's fuzzy in my head now. I can't remember anything." ̋

The Mudkip made his pensive look once again, while I was still confused about what was happening to me. I looked all around me, so I could see where I was. Maybe this place could be a familiar one…

We were in a grassy clearing, almost completely surrounded by trees. Big, majestuous trees. I thought I recognized that many of them were evergreen trees, but there were also smaller leafy trees, here and there. And there were also a few groves at the foot of some trees. But the place where I was standing was a bit distant from the trees. This grassy clearing acted like a light green path, crossing through the trees like a large avenue lightened up by the glowing sun.

What was this place? I really had no souvenir of a place like this one. I had never been there before… At least, I thought…

I turned myself towards the Mudkip. ̏"Where are we? What is this place?" ̋

̏"You've never been here before? It's the Tiny Woods." ̋

̏"Tiny Woods?" ̋I was thinking… No, that name was definitely not familiar to me.

"You don't know the Tiny Woods?"̋ the Mudkip asked.

̏"No, I don't know this place."̋ I answered.

̏"Oh my! You sure are the first Pokémon I meet who doesn't know about Tiny Woods! At least, tell me you know about Pokémon Square?" ̋

I was thinking once again… Pokémon Square? What is Pokémon Square? Is that a shopping center or something?

̏"Pokémon Square? No, I'm not familiar with that either…" ̋

I sensed the exasperation getting shaped inside the Mudkip's mind and getting drawn on his face? What did that mean? Would he finally concede that I really was a human transformed into a Pokémon ou would he simply shout out that I was totally insane?

̏"You don't know Pokémon Square either?"̋ A few moments of silence… ̏"Are you sure you're not making fun of me?" ̋

̏"No, I swear!" ̋ I said, exasperated as well, ̏"I don't know what's happening. I can't explain it, but something really weird is happening. I'm a human and then suddendly, I'm a Pokémon. I find myself into a place I don't know and I have absolutely no memory of what might have happened."

I got closer to the Mudkip, kneeled down and looked straight into his eyes, at the point I could almost see my Charmander face in his sight. ̏"I know it's hard to believe, but it's the truth. Please, believe what I say, please!" ̋

Our looks stayed crossed while Mudkip was trying to find something to say. Finally, he opened his mouth:

̏"It's… It's really hard to believe… But you seem so sincere… And so convinced of what you're saying…" He closed his eyes and a large smile appeared on his face. ̏"Alright, I'll believe you." ̋ Well at least, it's a good start, I thought. ̏"But,"̋ Mudkip continued, ̏"it might take a while before I get used to it." ̋

I stood up and watched the blue sky, devoid of clouds. ̏"Don't worry. You're not the only one."̋ I said sarcastically.

̏"Do you have a name?"̋ Mudkip asked. I looked at him. ̏"I've heard about humans and it would seem they give each other names to differ themselves from each other. Do you have a name?"̋

̏"Well of course, my name is…" ̋

My name… Hey, wait a minute… How was that possible? I couldn't even remember my name!!!

Mudkip looked at me with his eyes wide open. He seemed to be troubled, even slightly afraid. I imagined that there must have been a widespread sign of panic within my face.

̏"You… You don't remember that either?" ̋ he asked.

I tried to calm down, but I was completely messed up. It's so simple to remember your name and yet I couldn't! But why? What the hell was happening to me?!

I put my hands on each side of my skull. I had the feeling that my head was about to explode. I slightly leaned forward as a powerful force was surging within my mind.

̏"Charmander?" ̋ I could hear Mudkip's voice. His voice was calm and unruffled. He had practically kept the same tone since he began to talk to me when I woke up.

̏"Charmander?... Calm down…" ̋

I was breathing quickly, trying to release this feeling of panic from my body and which was paralyzing me.

̏"Calm down…" ̋

I put myself on my knees, panting like I had just run the whole Pokémon-athon without going to the pit stop.

̏"Calm down. It'll be fine." ̋

I was breathing normally once again. Calmness slowly came back within my body and my mind, but it couldn't erase that horrible trauma. The fact that I couldn't remember anything, not even my name.

̏"I'm… I'm sorry", ̋ Mudkip said, ̏"I shouldn't have…" ̋

̏"No."̋ I cut him off, ̏"No, that's OK. You couldn't know. I'm… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have reacted like this." ̋

̏"No big deal… But I think I'm gonna give up questions for a moment, OK?" ̋

He said that phrase with a smile. I couldn't keep myself from smiling as well.

̏"It's… It's really a strange day."̋ he said, ̏"I mean… You are... very different from every Pokémon I know… It's… It's just strange…" ̋

Saying that it was ̎"just strange"̎ was an euphemism, but it was hard to find a more appropriate term to the situation. I was just finding myself there, in the middle of an unknown place, in a totally different body, in a complete state of amnesia. What else could possibly happen?

̏"Help me! Please! Somebody!", a voice said in the distance.

I had a feeling that my crazy day was far from being over…


	2. The First Rescue

**AN: **Thanks to Fallen Vanguard for reviewing my first chapter.

**

* * *

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**CHAPTER 2: THE FIRST RESCUE**

̎"Help me! Please! Somebody!"

The voice was coming from the woods. The Tiny Woods, as Mudkip called the place. I had the feeling that the voice could be coming from far enough, as there didn't seem to be anybody in that forest, except this Pokémon (I dared to believe that it was a Pokémon). So, that feminine voice could cross through the trees and through the bushes, without coming across anything on its way.

It was difficult, however, to see who it was. The sunbeams went weakly through the trees' foliage, thus creating a few zones of shade of considerable size and greatly reducing the visibility in some parts of the vegetation.

Finally, in the middle of all that shade, a silhouette appeared, emerging from the obscurity, and getting nearer to Mudkip and me. I had seen that shape before, though I couldn't remember where or when. It was a small round body from which emerged a thin pair of rounded wings, as well as two antennae from the top of its body. The Pokémon was flying very quickly, as if it was fleeing a pursuer.

̎"Help me!" ̎

It was the same voice we were hearing, only even louder. There was no doubt anymore, it was really that Pokémon who was begging for help. But I could only see that Pokémon and no-one else. No sign of any enemy or any pursuer or anybody else.

She was only at a few feet from us and she was getting into the sunnier zone at the edge of the trees. Mudkip and I finally saw her clearly: it was a Butterfree.

She emerged from the side of the woods and when she saw us, she abruptly stopped her high-speed flight. She was visibly in a state of panic and she was panting, probably out of exhaustion.

̎"Help me, I'm begging you!" ̎

̎"Ma'am? What's happening?"̎, Mudkip asked.

̎"My baby… My poor little Caterpie…" The Butterfree was breathing so quickly, she practically had to take a break between each sentence, as short as it could be.

̎"What's the matter?"̎, I asked.

̎"There has been… an attack…"

̎"An attack?"̎, I said.

̎"An attack… of Pokémon?", Mudkip asked.

̎"Yes…", she answered, ̎"Some Pidgey… Some Pidgey attacked us, me and my boy. There were a whole flock of them… I really don't know what got into them, but… There were flying silently above us, in the forest… And then suddendly… They dived and they charged at us…"

"What?! They did that?"̎, Mudkip said, surprised.

̎"Yes… And yet, we didn't do anything to them… We were calmly passing by, without making a noise, without speaking… But… They did it anyway…"

I sensed tears getting into the Butterfree's eyes and her voice was turning shaky and jerky.

̎"The Pidgey attacked us… And… And… I couldn't see anything. Only the Pidgey surrounding me, flapping their wings ragingly… And then they were gone… Flown away… But… But… My baby was gone too. My… My Caterpie… Gone!.... Oh dear, dear, dear…"

She was sobbing. I stayed there, standing still. I was unable to move. I guessed that story shook me up too. Mudkip seemed to be sad as well.

̎"Did… Didn't you look for Caterpie by yourself?", I asked.

̎"I tried to…", she answered, ̎"But I was scared… Too scared… I looked all around me, but I couldn't see him. And shortly after the Pidgey were gone, I heard another flapping of wings… I thought they were coming back after me, so I had to flee."

Mudkip and I stood there, not uttering a word.

̎"I have to find my baby… He must still be in the woods… But I can't go all on my own. I'm… I'm not strong enough. If the Pidgey ever come back, I can't even imagine what they could do to me…"

I glanced at Mudkip. He did the same. Our looks met. His face took a determined look and he gave me a nod. I answered by the same gesture. It was clear, we had the same idea in our minds.

̎"Ma'am, we're gonna get your son back.", Mudkip said.

Butterfree turned her head toward him.

̎"Really?" ̎

̎"Really.", I replied, ̎"These woods sure look dangerous, but we cannot let your son in a place like this one, with all those Pidgey possibly still roaming around. We're gonna find him!"

Butterfree's eyes became shiny. There was a mix of joy and relief in her face.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you so much! From the bottom of my heart, I wish that you find him."

Mudkip moved toward Butterfree with a resolute look printed on his face.

̎"We're gonna succeed, I promise you.̎" He then turned toward me. ̎"Let's go, Charmander!" ̎

I nodded and rejoined him on the side of the woods.

* * *

We were going deep into the Tiny Woods, walking straight, following the same route as Butterfree used to get out of the forest. By taking the same path, maybe we could arrive at the same place where the Pidgey supposedly attacked. Maybe Caterpie was still around. But it was uncertain. He could be anywhere in this forest.

The sunlight was filtering unevenly throughout the vegetation. The shady zones were spreading on a large area. That lack of light wasn't comforting. I had the unpleasant feeling that somebody could suddenly jump from behind a tree at anytime.

We had already spent some time walking throughout the woods without encountering anybody. There wasn't a single noise either. No sign of life anywhere. This wasn't natural to me. Nothing seemed to indicate there could have been a flock of Pidgey hiding around.

̎"Mudkip?" ̎My new friend turned his head toward me.̎ "How farther is this forest spreading anyway?"

̎"We're almost at the center of it." ̎

Well, I told myself, not bad for some _Tiny_ Woods…

"There's something I don't understand.", I told Mudkip, ̎"Why would Pidgey attack a Butterfree and her Caterpie for no reason? It seemed to me that Pidgey are not aggressive by nature…"

"No, of course not. But some very strange things have been happening recently in the region. Many Pokémon have begun to behave oddly and attack Pokémon for no reason."

"Why?" ̎

̎"No-one knows exactly why. But many wonder if it could be linked to the surge of natural disasters which have hit us lately…"

̎"Na… Natural disasters?"̎, I asked, puzzled, ̎"What kinds of natural disasters?" ̎

̎"There have been disasters of many kinds.", Mudkip answered, ̎"Avalanches, mudslides, rockfalls… Rain storms or hail storms… Unusually hot days or unusually cold days… But I'd say that earthquakes happen the most…"

Great, I thought. I arrive into this world just as Pokémon begin to go psycho and Mother Nature is turning crazy…

"Why would those two phenomenons be linked?"̎, I asked Mudkip.

̎"Both have started to happen at the same time, more or less. So maybe they have a common origin…" ̎

Mudkip and I had been walking in the forest for quite a long time when we spotted a zone which seemed to receive more sunlight, and it was not far from us. There also seemed to have less trees in that area than in the vicinity.

"It's a clearing.", Mudkip said, ̎"Let's go." ̎

It took us only a short time to get there. The clearing seemed to act more or less like an oasis of sunlight, here to drag us out of the shady kingdom of the woods.

"And now?", I asked, ̎"Where are we gonna find Caterpie?" ̎

"We should look around here. He shouldn't be far anyway. We should search in… Oh, wait a second…" ̎

I turned toward him. He was staring at emptiness. His gaze was almost frozen.

"I sense something."̎ He closed his eyes, as if he was trying to focus on something. ̎"Yes, there's something getting closer…" ̎

"Could it be Caterpie?" ̎

Mudkip opened his eyes, but his face took a worried look. ̎"No… Definitely not… It's moving way too fast to be a Caterpie…" ̎

OK, that was definitely not a good sign. I didn't know how Mudkip could determine if there was indeed something getting closer to us, but he seemed to be certain of what he was saying.

Mudkip turned his head to look behind him. I barely had the time to do the same when I saw two brown shapes diving toward us while screeching.

The time of a reflex, I dived flat on my face just before one of the shapes could get to me. Nevertheless, I felt a heavy draft in my back and I even felt the flame on my tail wavering from that draft. The thing had barely missed me. I raised my head to see two Pidgey break in their impulse and then rising slightly in the air, describing half a spin in the process. They lowered slowly to find themselves right in front of us.

I quickly put myself back on my two legs, while Mudkip put himself on all fours. The Pidgey had missed him too, fortunately. But we weren't out of trouble for the moment, as the Pidgey were preparing themselves to charge on us again. We didn't have the choice anymore. We would have to fight them if we wanted to get rid of them.

We were face to face with the Pidgey. We stared at them and they were doing the same at us. It only lasted for a short moment however, as the two birds charged at us. I stayed perfectly still until the Pidgey were at a couple of feet from us. And then, very quickly, Mudkip and me jumped on our side to dodge them. It worked, but unfortunately, the Pidgey immediately turned around and one of them pecked me right in the chest.

I fell on my back, grimacing in pain. It was a nice hit and I had to close my eyes for a few seconds. It really hurt. I hadn't felt anything like that before. For a moment, I thought it took my breath away. When I opened my eyes, the Pidgey was just above me. It was frantically flapping its wings while shouting high cries. I didn't know what it was up to, but I could hardly move by myself, he was way too close to me. I was still laying on my back, with no possibility nor any space to get back up. I tried to wave my hands to make the Pidgey fly away, but it didn't work. It was keeping me under its hold and it really wasn't about letting me escape. I tried to give another shot at waving my hands. But this time, I successfully scratched the Pidgey in his abdomen. He unleashed a cry of pain and moved back.

Charmander have small hands, but their claws can do some damage to enemies of smaller or similar size. That's what I had just witnessed and I realized I could use my claws to attack this Pidgey. The injury I had just inflicted him was serious enough for it to drop its guard. This was my chance. I had to take benefit of it. In one bound, I leapt in its direction and I scratched it once again, this time in the face. It unleashed an even louder cry and it was now writhing in pain. It couldn't hold out much longer.

"Charmander!" That was Mudkip calling me. I turned to find out my friend in a rather uncomfortable position. The other Pidgey was pecking him and Mudkip couldn't get rid of it. I didn't have the choice. I had to step in.

The Pidgey had its back turned on me. I thought it would be the right occasion. I could breathe some fire right upon it. I focused with all my might and fired. But nothing came out of my mouth, but a light growl. Whoever would have witnessed this, it would probably have been labelled as cute… But it was definitely not the time to be cute… I tried one more time, unsuccessfully. And then one more time. And one more. But nothing, safe for weak growls. After much growling from my part, the Pidgey finally heard me, turned around and glanced at me menacingly.

The Pidgey let Mudkip go and took flight very close to the ground, getting farther from both of us. I wasn't sure of what it was up to, but it suddenly turned back to face me. Oh no, it would try to tackle me! And that's what it did… It started to charge right in my direction. Instinctively, I was able to hurl myself on my back, just before the Pidgey would have reached me. I fell once again on my back, on the warm and supple grass. But as I fell, I thought I heard not one, but two loud screeches. I took a look, only to discover that the Pidgey had tackled directly into… the other Pidgey, who was still standing behind me as the first Pidgey tried to tackle me.

The crash had been terrible. The Pidgey who had already been weakened by my claws had been tackled right into the stomach. It was knocked out instantly. As for its unwilling assailant, it was seriously beaten down, but was still standing.

̎"Let's finish this!", I heard Mudkip say. I saw my pal take a few steps backward, and then launched himself in a charge against the last enemy standing. The Pidgey had just enough time to turn its head as Mudkip tackled it with all his strength. The collision sent the Pidgey flying backwards at huge speed. Its flight abruptly ended when its body hit against a tree very hard. The Pidgey fell unconscious right upon the impact.

̎"Alright! We did it!"̎, I exclaimed. Both Pidgey were laying unconscious, almost side by side, knocked down by our superior power. I was extremely feverish. I had just won my very first battle as a Pokémon, with Mudkip's help.

I looked at my friend. We were both displaying a large grin on our faces. We had just experienced such wildly intense emotions and we had to endure some physical pain, but everything was gone now. We had won. And we were happy.

But there was one thing remaining: we still hadn't found Caterpie.

* * *

̎"Still nothing?" ̎

My voice was ringing out throughout the trees. Mudkip and I had been back in the woods for at least an hour now. Actually, I really didn't know how much time we had spent searching since we had beaten the Pidgey. I had somehow lost the notion of passing time. Hours, minutes, seconds… They didn't have any significance anymore. From then on, I could only count on the movements of the sun to catch up with time. But when you find yourself deep into the woods, where sunlight barely crosses through the foliage, time ceases to exist. At least, that's the feeling I had.

̎"Charmander! I sense something!" Mudkip was calling me from a distance. I quickly rejoined him by zigzagging through the vegetation.

̎"Is it good this time?" ̎

̎"I don't know. But there's something nearby." How could he know, anyway? According to me, he had a sixth sense… ̎"Follow me, I think it's this way…" ̎

Personally, I had absolutely no idea of where we should search. So I guessed it would be better to leave it to Mudkip… I let my friend guide me, even if in the end, I had the feeling that he wasn't sure of where we were going. All I could sense is that he had an intuition and he wouldn't let it go.

We walked for a few minutes, when we heard a voice in the distance. A high and extended voice, which seemed to be getting louder at each step we were making. There was no doubt anymore. There was somebody there. The voice went silent for a few moments, but Mudkip stayed focused and kept leading me in the same direction. Suddenly, the voice was getting heard once again, only this time, we could distinguish the words. And the first one we could hear was:

"Mommy?" ̎

As we heard that word, we knew we were getting closer to our goal. Some kind of new energy revived me up completely. I was walking faster, with a steadier pace. That's when we saw him.

He was nicely roaming, crawling across a tree. He seemed to be both lost and confused. His gait was jerky. It was Caterpie.

I wasn't walking anymore, I was running. He was there, at last. The fruit of our search. The missing son, finally at our reach.

"Mommy, where are you?" ̎

His voice was sad, and no-one could have doubted it. Nobody, at this age, wants to get separated from his mom and get lost in the unknown. But his nightmare was about to end. We were there to bring him back into the light.

"Caterpie?" ̎

The little worm jumped as he heard my voice. And as he saw me, he stepped back. He seemed to be really frightened.

̎"Caterpie, don't be afraid. We are here to take you back to your mom."

The little kid kept staring at me.

̎"Mom?" ̎

̎"Come with us."̎, Mudkip said, ̎"We'll get you out of here, OK?" ̎

Caterpie got closer to us, very slowly. He was still a bit scared, but I could see the fear slowly disappearing from his big, round, black eyes. He quietly got to me. I hold out my hand as a sign of good faith.

̎"You can trust us, Caterpie. We don't mean you any harm. We're just here to bring you back to your mother. Come with us and you'll see her very soon. OK?" ̎ Caterpie nodded. ̎"OK." ̎

And thus, Mudkip and I went back into the woods, along with Caterpie. We put ourselves side by side, with Caterpie right in the middle. Thus, Mudkip and I could protect him if anything happened. But I hoped that nothing would happen. At this point, I only wished one thing: to get out of these woods and bring together Caterpie and his mother. It couldn't take much long…


	3. The Nicest Thing to Do

**AN**: Thanks to Fallen Vanguard for reviewing.

**CHAPTER 3: THE NICEST THING TO DO**

"Mommy!!!"

It was the moment Mudkip and I were eagerly waiting for. As soon as Caterpie spotted his mother, he freed himself from our protection and rushed right toward her. Butterfree had never left the clearing from where we set off. She was impatiently waiting for her baby's return, along with his two rescuers.

Caterpie emerged in the clearing by crawling as quickly as his small body would allow him. At his age, he could obviously not move as fast as a more mature Caterpie, but he was entirely transported by joy and by relief, actually. His velocity was entirely due to the fact of seeing the Pokémon standing in the middle of the tree-ridden clearing.

As soon as she saw Caterpie getting out from the shade of the forest, Butterfree rushed right toward him. Despite the fact that I was somehow far from them, I could perceive the look into Butterfree's eyes. It was identical to his boy's: full of joy and relief.

The two bugs finally met. Caterpie literally threw himself into his mother's arms and started to cry. With all the fear, the dread and the anxiety he accumulated within himself while in the forest, it was the time now to let all of this drain off into his tears. Butterfree hugged her son tightly against her, trying to console him in the process.

"Oh, honey… Everything's OK. Mommy is there now…"

Her voice couldn't hide her own sobs. There were tears in her eyes as well. It was clearly visible, even from the place I was.

It was a moving scene. I felt my heart getting warmed up and it was not because of the fire burning inside my Charmander body…

Mudkip and I finally got out from the woods to find ourselves near Butterfree and Caterpie. When Butterfree saw us, I felt the emotion increasing even more within her eyes. Joy and relief had been rejoined by gratitude. Still staring at us, she weakly muttered a small sentence:

"Thank you."

She didn't need to say more…

---

"I… I couldn't thank you enough for what you just did…"

Butterfree was up in the air by now, with her back turned toward the forest, with Caterpie well settled on her right side. Mudkip and I were facing them, facing the Tiny Woods, the place of which we had just triumphed over.

"I mean… Caterpie means everything to me… I wish to reward you well for your heroism, but I have the feeling that everything I could ever offer you couldn't be equivalent to a fraction of what Caterpie means to me…"

"Oh, don't worry about it.", Mudkip said, "The fact that he is well and safe, and now to your side, is the greatest reward for us. Right, Charmander?"

I smiled and nodded. But what else could I possibly do? What else could I possibly say? That was a question with only one possible answer. I couldn't deny that it had been a pleasure to offer my help, couldn't I?

I took a look at Caterpie. The little worm was still looking at me and he had been doing this for quite a long time. His eyes were shiny. And I could also feel that there was some kind of admiration in those same eyes. I had to acknowledge that it gave him quite an adorable appeal. I smiled and blinked at Caterpie.

"I would like to offer you these anyway." I returned my attention toward Butterfree who was slowly flying down to the grassy ground. She put down three small things, side by side, on the grass, just in front of Mudkip and me. We gave a close look at them. They looked like three small fruits. The first one was perfectly round, with a seemingly rough skin and was of a shining blue colour. The second fruit was of a pinkish colour and was also round, although the bottom end was a bit sharper. As for the third fruit, it looked like an inverted cone with a rounded and flattened top. It was of a light blue colour.

"This is an Oran berry.", explained Butterfree as she indicated the first blue fruit. She then pointed at the small pink fruit: "And this is a Pecha berry." Finally, she pointed at the third light blue fruit: "And this is a Rawst berry. I know it's not much, but I beg you to accept them."

"Oh, don't worry. We'll take them gladly.", said Mudkip with a smile. Then, he turned his head in my direction: "You pick them up, Charmander?"

I gave him an uncertain look. His smile settled down a bit.

"You don't have to walk on your four legs, do you?"

"Ah… Uh… Yes, right… Sorry…" OK, it was a bit embarassing.

So I leaned forward and picked up the three berries lying on the ground.

"Thank you once again.", Butterfree said, "It's getting late by now. We should get back home." She then said to Caterpie: "Come on honey, we're going back home."

"OK.", the little worm answered.

Butterfree turned toward Mudkip and me.

"Goodbye.", she said.

"Goodbye.", we answered together.

The two bugs got on their way home. We watched them walking away in the distance for a few moments. The sky was getting darker indeed. The night was slowly falling.

"What a day!", said Mudkip, still watching Butterfree and Caterpie in the distance.

"Charmander?"

I turned my head toward my pal, who was already glaring at me.

"It's getting late and the night is about to fall… Do… Do you have a place to spend the night?"

"…No…", I only said, slowly shaking my head.

Mudkip's face took a pensive look, before getting smiley again.

"In this case, you could come to live with me!", Mudkip enthusiastically exclaimed, "My place is very big. I'm sure there would be well enough space for both of us. And I think you'll love my house, Charmander. So? Is that OK for you?"

I made as if I was thinking about it, but my decision was already made. His offer was way too tempting to be passed over. After all, what else could I possibly do? Where else could I possibly go? I had just arrived into a world that was totally unknown to me… A world struggling with dangers and perils I would never be able to face alone. Of natural disasters, I had no idea yet. But with those furious Pidgey I'd met earlier in the day, I was convinced there was something unusual with the Pokémon in the region. It was clear to me: I needed somebody. And Mudkip, whose obvious kindness was inevitable in his sea-blue face, seemed to be this _somebody_.

"OK.", I told Mudkip, "If you offer me, I don't mind living at your house."

Mudkip's face lit up: "Alright!!! Awesome! Let's go then!"

Mudkip motioned me to follow him. We quickly hit the road, with Mudkip in the lead and I was blindly following him. But I didn't stay behind for much long. I moved forward to get aside from Mudkip, because I had to ask him a question.

"Is it far from here?"

"Oh no, it's nearby.", my friend answered, "It's gonna be far less exhausting than the distance we covered today in the Tiny Woods.", he added, smiling.

"Oh. OK…"

"Talking about that," Mudkip added, "the way you fought in the woods really impressed me…"

I turned my head in his direction: "Really?"

"Really. You skilfully got rid of the first Pidgey. And as the other was beginning to give me much trouble, it was very wise from you to growl in order to turn it away from me… "

"Oh, but about that… That wasn't really what I wanted to do… I… I wanted to use a fire attack while it had its back turned on me, but I've never been able to make anything…"

"Oh…", Mudkip took a pensive look, "In that case… If you didn't make it… Then it's probably because you're not strong enough for the moment…"

"Is that so?", I replied.

"You know, inside every Pokémon, some attacks are innate.", Mudkip explained, "But most of the other attacks get learned later on. It takes some time and a lot of patience. But the most important thing is you need experience to get stronger. And the main way to acquire experience is to get involved in fights."

"So, since this afternoon, I should have gotten stronger because I got into a fight… but not strong enough yet to learn fire attacks. That's what you're telling me?"

"That's right."

I was disappointed somehow. I felt slightly deprived.

"Don't worry about it, Charmander. You're not the only Pokémon in this situation…"

I lowered my head as I kept walking.

"Charmander… I… I'm a water Pokémon and yet, I'm not able to use water attacks…"

I returned my attention to my little blue friend.

"The only attacks I know are Tackle, Growl and Mud-Slap. That's all… yet…"

"Yet?"

"I won't hide it, Charmander. I have the firm attention of becoming stronger… And I sense that you also wish this to happen to you, right?"

"Well… I'd like to, indeed…"

"That's why I believe we should work hard to achieve that goal. We should hold ourselves together, Charmander… And we'll become stronger! What do you think?"

I couldn't keep myself from smiling. I had to admit it, Mudkip's optimism was unwavering. He pronunced each word with conviction, without ever raising his tone. I could feel all the sincerity within his words. Just by listening to him, I was sure that Mudkip would take all means to achieve his aims. I thought I was feeling some kind of weird admiration toward him.

Mudkip suddendly stopped walking: "Thinking about it, Charmander… I think I've just had an idea… We could form a rescue team together…"

"A rescue team?", I asked, curious, "What is a rescue team?"

"Well…", Mudkip seemed to think about what he was going to say, "You remember when I talked to you about the increasing number of natural disasters and the weird behaviour of some Pokémon?"

"Yes.", I answered.

"Well, these two facts make that many Pokémon find themselves in dangerous situations and need help. So, rescue teams take charge of rescuing those who are in need… I would love to form a rescue team, because I wish to help Pokémon coming though these very difficult times. I dream of a world where Pokémon could live happily in peace…"

"Um… OK, I see."

"So, what it's gonna be? Would you like to form a rescue team with me?"

I put my hand on the back of my head. "I don't know. It sounds rather… dangerous."

"It's not without its risks, obviously… But think about it, Charmander… It's worth it, I tell you. It would be a great occasion to gain experience and become stronger. And isn't there a part of you that tells you that helping others would be the nicest thing to do?"

Mudkip's last sentence hooked me up. He had a point, there. The nicest thing to do… I then remembered the moment when Caterpie got back to his mother after we rescued him from the woods and how it touched me. And I also remembered the look in Caterpie's eyes afterward.

"You're right.", I said to Caterpie, "It would be the nicest thing to do… In that case, it's settled. I agree to form a rescue team with you, Mudkip…"

"Yay! Alright!", Mudkip got very excited and he could hardly hold himself together, "Thank you so much, Charmander! You and I, we're gonna become the greatest team of all!"

I gave a radiant smile. Indeed, I had a few worries, but I had the feeling I'd just taken the right decision.

"We could begin as soon as tomorrow…", Mudkip said, "We could go to Pelipper Post Office in the morning and get officially registered. Oh, I sense it's gonna be so great!..."

"No doubt about it…", I replied, "But we should go to your house first. Is it far from here?"

"We're already there..."

"…What?" I got a bit confused.

"We haven't been walking for a few minutes now, Charmander…", Mudkip answered, "It means we've just arrived at the house."

I looked up and noticed the presence of a high wall made of brown bricks, spreading on a good length along the street. The wall seemed to bifurcate at each end, making me believe that this wall was actually a fence of some kind. At the top of the wall, I thought I discerned a few torches, separated from each other by a few feet, maybe ten to twelve feet. There was also a large gap in the middle of the wall, probably some kind of entrance.

I walked to that large gap. Once I was there, I finally discovered what was standing on the other side of the wall.

In the middle of a large grassy site, I spotted a large building, entirely made of bricks. The house was totally round and its circular wall was rising from fifteen to twenty feet above the ground. The roof was shaped like a gigantic dome, also brick-made. Actually, everything was brick-made, from the house's structure to the fence surrounding the site. A large arch-shaped hole in the front of the house was used as the entrance and two torches had been lit up on each side of the entrance.

I was staring at the house, unable to take my eyes off it. I didn't even notice that Mudkip had quietly slipped to my right.

"So, do you like it?", he asked.

"That's… That's really your house?"

Mudkip nodded.

"It is magnificent, Mudkip! I love it!"

"I'm glad you love it, Charmander. I knew you would love it."

I slowly walked toward the house and so did Mudkip. But we suddendly heard a voice coming from behind.

"Hey guys!"

We turned back to see a weird bird-like Pokémon flying toward us. He was fairly tall and he had white feathers, with a few accents of blue. But he had a huge bill. In fact, he looked more like a bill upon which a bird body had been put over.

"Oh! Pelipper!", Mudkip exclaimed.

The bird Pokémon got closer to us, slowly went down and landed in front of Mudkip and me.

"You are the guys who saved Caterpie from the Tiny Woods, aren't you?"

Mudkip and I nodded.

"That's what I thought. I learned about what you did and I decided to congratulate you personally. I believe you did a very noble thing."

"Oh, thank you…"

"I must admit that it's very rare from Pokémon who are not members of rescue teams to venture like this in dangerous places…", Pelipper said.

"Oh, you've come at the right time, Pelipper!", Mudkip exclaimed, "My friend Charmander and I had just decided that we'd like to form a rescue team…"

"Really?", Pelipper answered, "Excellent! This is the right time to get registered. We are receiving a record number of help requests in the present climate. And the present teams can hardly fulfill every one of them. I believe your help would be greatly appreciated, guys…"

"Yay! Great!", Mudkip was visibly happy of how things were turning out. "Could you register us, Pelipper?"

"No problem. I will go back to the post office and register you right away. And as of tomorrow, you will officially be a rescue team."

"Alright. Thanks a lot, Pelipper."

Pelipper took his stand and slowly took off. He rised vertically before abruptly stopping and he landed at the exact same spot from where he had just taken off.

"Oh, I've almost forgotten…", he said, "You have to give me the name of your team to get registered…"

"The… The name?", Mudkip asked.

"That's right. You need a name…"

Mudkip looked at me: "We hadn't thought about that, Charmander… What do you think? What would be a good name for our team?"

"I… I don't know…" Millions of possibilities, but which one was the right one? Really, I had no idea…

I looked at Pelipper: "How do teams usually choose their name?"

"Most of the time, team names are chosen according to a common characteristic to all team members. For example, we have a team named Hydro because all members are water-type. And we have another team named Constrictor, because the members are Octillery, Tentacruel and Cradily, three Pokémon with tentacles."

Pelipper stopped talking for a few seconds, before continuing:

"As for you… Well, it's hard to say… I look at you, but I can't see much… At first sight, I would say that the most glaring common point between you two is the color orange. I mean… Charmander's body is orange and Mudkip's gills are orange too. Otherwise, I can't really tell…"

"Team Orange…", I said, "Mudkip, what do you think? We could be Team Orange… It sounds good to my ears."

"You're right, Charmander. Team Orange… That's perfect! It's a very good name! I love it!"

Mudkip then looked at Pelipper: "Pelipper, it's all settled! We're Team Orange!"

The bird Pokémon gave us a smile as large as his bill: "Very well! I will register your team as Team Orange once I get back to the post office."

Pelipper slowly flapped his wings and slightly raised above the ground.

"I'm going back to the post office. I'll be back tomorrow morning to deliver everything you'll need to begin your rescue jobs. I advise you to get some rest for now. You'll need all of your strength and all of your energy. See you tomorrow, Team Orange!"

He took off and disappeared into the sky, where stars were gradually appearing, slowly replacing the weak light the Sun was still able to provide at the end of this day. My first night in the Pokémon World was coming. And the next day would soon be there… and so would be the official debut of Team Orange.


	4. Happy Mud in the Morning

**AN**: Sorry for the late update, but I'm somehow squeezed by final college exams, part-time job and holiday shopping. I hope you'll be comprehensive. But with the holidays coming, I think I should have more time for writing.

Thanks to Fallen Vanguard for reviewing.

**CHAPTER 4 : HAPPY MUD IN THE MORNING**

The inside of the brick house was as impressive as the outside. Impressive, in the way that there was a genuine sense of interior space. Because actually, there wasn't a lot of things inside… I could predict that every word I'd say would be answered by an echo of some kind. My voice was spreading to every corner of the room, going all the way to the top of the domed roof.

By the way, the roof was the only place in the house where windows had been installed. They were circular and crossed by perpendicular wooden rods, thus dividing each of them into four equally-sized quarters. There were six windows in all, each of them were at the same distance from the other. If one had decided to draw a line to the center of each window, it would have shaped a perfect hexagon.

The floor was entirely covered by rectangular stone tiles, except in the middle of the room. There, the tiles were of irregular shapes and colors and their arrangement formed a pattern made up of a circle placed in the middle of a series of ellipses of different sizes.

At the back of the room, there was a hearth in which a fire had been lit up. The brick chimney was going up along the arched wall and crossed through the dome. On each side of the hearth, there were two piles of wood logs which could be seemingly used to fuel the fire burning inside. I didn't know where or how Mudkip could have got all of this wood, but I thought at the same time that he should have had good acquaintances…

In front of the hearth, there was a large heap of flattened straw. I guessed that Mudkip and I would be using that straw as our bed. There was way enough space for the two of us.

That improvised bed was half the furniture that was found in the house. The other half was a granite table located on the far left side of the room. The flat surface of the stone table was lying on three large abstract-shaped marble legs. Beside the table, there was a large granite receptacle containing crystal-clear water.

There was no doubt in my mind: this house was perfect for me. The more I looked at it and the more it impressed me. It was certainly not a palace, but it was a very acceptable home, especially considering that I could have been left roving and homeless at the end of my first day into the Pokémon World. But chance (or fate) visibly had some good things in store for me and now I had, not only a shelter, but also a friendly roomer. I felt the urge to talk to him:

"I… I can't believe this is really your house, Mudkip…"

"Actually, I've only been living here for a short time…", he answered to me, "This house had been abandoned by its previous tenants and so, I decided to come and live here."

"Well, I can tell you that those tenants had some good taste…"

"I think that, actually, this house has been build as a base for some rescue team. But they eventually decided to move to a more remote place."

I nodded, by way of understanding.

"You look tired, Charmander. Am I wrong?"

I yawned. I didn't mean to, but it was enough to prove Mudkip that he was right. I needed to sleep, indeed. Mudkip smiled.

"There's no doubt about it, you're tired… But so am I. So let's go to sleep."

Mudkip headed toward the straw heap in front of the hearth, moved onto it and lied down on his belly. I also headed toward the bed.

"You'll see Charmander. It's very comfortable. But if I was you, I would watch out…"

"Watch out?", I said, confused, "Watch out for what?"

"Watch out for not setting fire to the bed with your tail…"

I opened my eyes wide, before turning my head and spotting the appendage coming out from the lower part of my body. I grabbed my tail with my left hand and bring it back toward me. I started to watch it attentively and pay a special attention to the flame burning at the tip. I couldn't get my eyes off it. I was like fascinated… Or was I hypnotized?

It must be admitted that when you're a human being, having a tail is the most unnatural sensation you could ever imagine. As a Charmander, there were a few aspects of my recently departed humanity I could still recognize. I had two arms, I was walking on two legs, one mouth, one nose (way of speaking) and two eyes. But that thing behind me… Oh, would I ever get used to it? And seeing a flame getting out of it… Really, what a weird feeling…

"Charmander?" Mudkip suddendly took me out of the flow of my thoughts and brought me back into the reality. "What are you doing?"

With a slightly embarrassed expression, I let my tail go. It went automatically back behind me. It was a weird feeling, I couldn't explain it suitably.

"Sorry.", I said, "It's only that… Well… I'm a human and…"

"Yes.", Mudkip interrupted me, "Yes, I perfectly understand…"

"Do you really believe me, Mudkip?"

His face took a confused look: "Wh… What do you mean?"

"If I tell you I'm a human, do you really believe me?"

Mudkip was staring at me, probably thinking at the same time.

"Yes… Yes, I do believe you… Very sincerely."

I didn't answer, but a light feeling of relief got a hold on me.

I finally took place on the straw bed. I lied on my back, thus putting my long tail between my legs. The flaming tip went beyond the edge of the straw heap, thus preventing from putting fire to it.

"I just hope you don't move too much when you sleep, Charmander…"

"I don't know. I've never seen myself sleeping…"

"Anyway… Good night, Charmander."

"Good night, Mudkip."

I closed my eyes and after a few minutes only, I was gone for Dreamland.

* * *

There are two kinds of dreams. The first kind is the dream that is so upsetting that it stays printed within your mind for several days. But it can last longer. In extreme cases, there are dreams you can remember for your whole life. It happens in the cases of the most terrifying nightmares, insightful revelating dreams or more simply, dreams that are so far-fetched that even the _surrealist_ word would mean so little…

The second kind is the banal dream. It's the most frequent type. Simply said, you dream and then you forget. From the moment you wake up, you don't remember what you dreamt during the night at all. In that case, you have the impression that you've slept for eight minutes, while it actually lasted for eight hours. Time seems to lose its normal rythm.

When I woke up the next morning, I quickly realized that my dreams of the previous night fell into the second category. I couldn't remember anything.

As I opened my eyes, I saw that the sky coming through the windows was of a pinkish color. That was the color of the very early morning, when the blue color hasn't woken up yet.

I looked at Mudkip and saw that he was still asleep. He had kept the same position than when he had went to bed. And so had I… I was still on my back with my tail between my legs. I knew what it meant…

"So this is not a dream…", I weakly mumbled to myself.

No, it wasn't a dream. What happened on the previous day. I still was a Pokémon. I still was in this world. It was really real…

My eyelids were heavy. I was still tired. Instantly, I closed my eyes and went back into sleep.

I woke up some time later. I had probably dreamed inbetween, but I couldn't remember anything. I looked at the ceiling and saw that the sky was of a light blue color. It was time to get up.

I looked at Mudkip, only to discover that he wasn't there. I got up in a hurry and looked all around the room.

"Mudkip? Mudkip?"

Only the echo of my voice came back to me. It was clear: Mudkip was definitely not inside the house. I felt a keen sense of concern growing within my body. Where had Mudkip gone? Had he left me like that? Or was he simply outdoors? One thing for sure, I decided to go find out by myself.

I went through the entire room and found myself in the entrance. One more step, and I was outside. But Mudkip didn't seem to be there neither. I looked on every side, in front of the house, but there was no sign of my friend.

"Mudkip?"

Still no answer. I began to feel really worried. I went to the left side of the house so I would be sure to check everywhere.

"Mudkip, where are you?" I could clearly feel the panic within my voice. But this time, I got an answer:

"Charmander? I'm behind the house!"

It was Mudkip's voice indeed. As soon as I heard his voice, I felt a great sense of relief. I headed toward the back of the house, passing by the left side.

Once I got there however, Mudkip was still nowhere to be seen. I could only see a large swamp spreading from behind the house and into the distance. There was a large body of water, dark and cloudy. The grass was growing much longer from there and there even was some vegetation in the water itself. The grass also seemed to be longer from the place I was standing. And the ground was humid, even muddy at some spots.

I decided to get a closer look at this water body, because I couldn't figure where else Mudkip could have been. The more I got closer, the more the grass was getting thicker and taller. The air also seemed to get more humid and I felt slightly uncomfortable with that. Finally, I arrived on the edge of the water. From there, I had a good look on the biggest part of the swamp. But I still couldn't see Mudkip… Just where was he, anyway?!

I checked out the water in front of me. It was so blurred that I couldn't even take the slightest look at my reflection. I leaned forward and got my face closer to the water so I could see better, but it didn't change anything. The water was too filthy and too muddy to make anything appear. I stood there, contemplating the swamp, when I suddendly got hit by a shot of water right in the face.

I got a spontaneous reaction. With a cry of surprise, I lost my balance and fell backwards. The water was slimy and really muddy, and its smell was nauseating. I got some right in my eyes and it was badly irritating me. I quickly rubbed my face with my hands to get rid of all that water. And then, I blinked my eyes repetitively to make sure they were dry. When I finally managed to get my eyes open, I looked right toward the swamp and toward the head which was emerging from it: Mudkip, who burst out laughing.

"Gotcha!", he said, with a triumphant smile.

I didn't know how to react. Because Mudkip certainly couldn't realize which effects his joke had on me. A fire Pokémon reacts to water very differently from other kinds of Pokémon. It's not very hard to imagine. Just like an authentic fire, a Fire-type Pokémon feels like it's getting extenguished, robbed of its energy, when it gets soaked like that. Fortunately for me, Mudkip's water shot hadn't been very powerful and had minimal consequences on me.

"Sorry, Charmander, but it was too nice an occasion…" Mudkip got completely out of the swamp, still proud of his move.

"Just what are you doing here?", I finally said.

"Well, when I woke up, I saw you were still asleep. So I decided to let you sleep for a little while and I came here to take a dive… I love this place, you see. It's a wonderful spot."

I really wanted to ask him what he found wonderful in a place like this and how he dared to come take a dive here, but I just remembered that Mudkip love swamps and wetlands… I guessed that's one part of their nature…

"So, Charmander? Are you ready to leave off for adventures today?"

Ah yeah… We had just enrolled ourselves as a rescue team on the previous evening…

"Well, I guess so, but what should we begin with?"

"First of all, we're gonna check out the mailbox. Maybe Pelipper left something for us. Let's go and see…"

He took the lead and I started following him closely. He brought me in front of the house and that's where I saw what I had missed on the previous day. Standing on the lawn, close to the brick wall, there was a red box set up on a wooden post, which was at least as tall as me. On the rectangular box, there was a little white plastic flag; the kind of ornament that could be used by the post guy to show that he had already passed. By the way, the little flag was already raised: there was something in the mailbox.

Mudkip and I got closer to the raised box. It was taller than me indeed. But by putting myself on the tip of my toes, I could reach the handle of the little door located on the side of the box. To open it, I needed to put my hand on the handle, which was on the top of the door, and then pull it toward me. That's exactly what I did and I discovered what was inside the mailbox.

"Mudkip! Looks like there's something inside."

"What is it?"

I stretched my hands again, but I could barely touch the mysterious package. I wasn't able to get it out of the mailbox.

"Do you need some help, Charmander?"

"No, just give me one moment…"

I leaped upward and finally grabbed the package. With some help of gravity, I went down toward the ground, with the object in my hands. But it was far heavier than I thought and, when I reached the ground, I almost fell backward because of the package's weight. Fortunately, I was able to keep my balance and step on my two feet.

I put the object on the ground. It was a white box of good size and it could be opened at half of its size. On the top of the box, there was a leather braid.

"It's a toolbox!", Mudkip exclaimed, "It's essential for every rescue team. We can use it to carry and contain everything we're going to need for our adventures."

I opened the toolbox and we instantly saw a paper sheet with a message written on it.

"Oh? Wanna read it, Charmander?"

I picked up the sheet and began to read out loud what was written on it:

_Dear Team Orange,_

_It is with a great pleasure that we welcome you as an official rescue team. From now on, you are members of a great family being on watch for the safeguard and the well-being of Pokémon worldwide. Consequently, it is now your sacred duty of enforcing these values everywhere you will go to make peace and harmony reign in the world._

_This is your toolbox. It will be of a great use to you. That is why we suggest that you bring it with you everywhere you will go._

_You will also find a small envelope with contains your official badges. Take good care of them. They are used to identify yourselves as a rescue team, but they are also used to provide assistance to the Pokémon you will find on your rescue missions._

_If you have questions, do not hesitate to come and see us. We will help you with great pleasure._

_Good luck!_

_The Pelipper Post Office Crew._

"They're talking of a small envelope?", I said to Mudkip.

"Yes, look. Just there.", he answered, pointing with his foreleg.

The inside of the toolbox was divided in two large compartments which were fairly deep. In one of them, there was indeed a small yellow envelope with the word _FRAGILE_ written in big black letters. I delicately took the envelope and unsealed it, while carefully putting the open side upwards.

"Let me see, Charmander! Let me see!", Mudkip was visibly excited and could barely hold himself together. I could see him making small bounces over and over again.

I bent my knees to lower my entire body, in front of Mudkip. I slightly tilted the envelope frontward and shook it a bit to bring its contents out of it. Finally, a weird object appeared and fell toward Mudkip, who stretched his forepaws and grabbed it. I gently did the same for the same other object which ended up in my paw.

Mudkip looked at his object with shiny eyes.

"Wah! Did you see that? It's a real badge!!!"

I then watched the thing that was in my own hand. The badge was made of what seemed to be an oval-shaped glass bubble with a flattened base. There were also a pair of white wings, lightly yellowish, on each side of the central bubble and slightly pointing upward. Inside the transparent glass bubble, there was the word _ORANGE_ inscribed, thus showing that we were really the Team Orange.

"That's really awesome!", Mudkip said with a large grin, "Now, we're ready to go on rescue missions."

"Nice.", I answered, "But where should we go?"

"Uh… Well… The thing is that we need rescue offers… Are you sure there's nothing else in the mailbox, Charmander?"

I thought that I saw nothing else in the box, other than the toolbox the first time, but I decided to check out one more time anyway, just to be sure. I made a leapt upward in front of the mailbox and got a glimpse of the inside. I landed back on the ground.

"No.", I said, "There's nothing else. It is empty."

"Oh…", Mudkip looked disappointed, but he quickly got his grin back, "Actually, it's not very important. We're a new team, so I guess nobody knows about us yet… We'll just go see the offers directly at the Post Office, that's all."

A voice got heard:

"Hey, guys!"

That voice was familiar. I had already heard it somewhere. I looked up and saw Pelipper flying right toward us. He was flying lower and lower until he landed on our mailbox.

"How are our newest rookies doing, this morning?"

"We're fine, Pelipper.", Mudkip answered.

"Great thing… I see that you've already checked out your mail. Is everything okay for you?"

"Yes, everything's fine…", Mudkip was still looking at his badge.

"You know how your badges are working, don't you?"

"Working?", I said, confused, "What do you mean by _working_? I thought that all those things could do was identifying ourselves…"

"Oh no. Your badges are much more useful than that. Actually, your badges own very special powers. They are essential to rescue Pokémon on your missions."

"How?", I asked.

"Badges have teleportation powers. They can whisk a Pokémon directly from anywhere to our post office. So, when you are in remote places, you won't need to do the same route all over again to get out of there."

"Wow!", I said, amazed. I looked at my badge closely. It looked even more impressive to me now that I knew what its powers were.

"All you need to do is to hold your badge frontward, in the direction of the Pokémon you wish to rescue. Then, you say ̏ Return! ̋ and it does the rest. That's OK for you? Everything's clear?"

Mudkip and I nodded.

"Very good. But now, I've got something else for you…"

Pelipper opened his large bill and took a letter out of it with his wing.

"We have received this early in the morning. It would appear that a small gang of Magnemite have some problems at the Thunderwave Cave. I think that this mission should fit you just fine. The Pokémon in that area are usually not much of a threat…"

Pelipper got down of the mailbox and landed right in front of me. He gave me the distress letter.

"Pokémon are counting on you now. I wish you success…"

On those words, Pelipper took off.

"Good luck, Team Orange!"


	5. Electricity in the Air

**AN** : Sorry for the long update. But the last few weeks have been full of events. But fortunately, the holidays are over now. I should benefit from more time to write my story.

**AN** : Thanks to Fallen Vanguard and EkanSwede for reviewing.

* * *

**CHAPTER 5: ELECTRICITY IN THE AIR**

Mudkip and I had just returned inside the brick house to get a good look at the situation. I was still holding the letter that Pelipper had given to me. The letter which would allow Team Orange to accomplish its first official rescue mission… I say official, because we had already made a first rescue on the previous day: Caterpie's rescue in the Tiny Woods. But that action was mainly just voluntary work. I ignored what difference there was between voluntary work and a rescue mission, but I supposed it was mainly a question of status or symbolism. I would certainly realize it on a later date.

For the moment, the only important thing was the missive we had in our possession. We were the only ones to own it, which meant we were the only ones who could possibly rescue the Pokémon in help.

Mudkip and I went to sit in our straw bed. I had to put myself near the edge, so I wouldn't set fire to the straw (damned tail…). Then, I opened the letter and found the message as such. I began to read it aloud:

_Help us, please! An important wave of electromagnetic energy has suddenly flowed into Thunderwave Cave. As a result, our friends Magnemite and Magnemite have been stuck together and they're now lost in the bottom of the cave. We need to get them out of there! Please, send a rescue team!_

_Magnemite and Magnemite_

"So, what do you think about it, Charmander?"

"I think it makes a lot of Magnemite…"

"Charmander…"

My statement sounded sarcastic for sure, but there was some stock of seriousnesss within my mind. Four Magnemite together sharing the same name?... I mean, how could they distinguish themselves? It didn't make any sense to me…

Mudkip got out of the straw heap:

"Come on now, Charmander… Magnemite are counting on us. We need to get to Thunderwave Cave as quickly as possible…"

I got up and out of the bed as well:

"Is it far from here?"

"No… But it's not exactly next door neither… If we don't hurry, we won't get there before the day's over, that's for sure…"

"In this case, let's go…"

Mudkip nodded, with a determined look in his face. We were about to get outdoors, when Mudkip suddendly stopped:

"Hey, wait a second, Charmander! We're forgetting the toolbox!"

Oops, he was right… We looked back and saw the forementioned box just across the stone table. We headed that way to get the box.

"By the way, Charmander… Have we put the three berries Butterfree gave us inside the box?"

I thought for a moment and said: "I don't think so. I believe I put them on the table yesterday when we arrived…"

Mudkip jumped on the table and discovered I was right. The three little fruits were still there.

"Charmander, bring the toolbox to me. I'll put the berries inside."

I took the heavy box in my arms and hold it right next to the table. The top of the box was open, Mudkip would only need to push the berries inside.

"Go, Mudkip. I'm ready."

Mudkip made the berries rolling on the table and, one by one, they all fell in the toolbox.

"Okay, it's done." Mudkip said, "We can go now."

We got outdoors and this time, we hit the road for real, northward. After passing by a few houses, we found ourselves in the wilderness. There was no sign of civilization anymore but the path we were riding, which would eventually lead us to Thunderwave Cave.

* * *

I really tried hard to determine how much time it took us to reach our destination, but I ultimately decided to give up. After all, it was utterly useless. The Pokémon World is a world which doesn't live under the weight of time constraints. Days have no name there. Hours, minutes and seconds are non-existant and non-essential. Only the results of the actions are worth something, not the performances. That's why the only important thing for a rescue team was to succeed, period. How much time you took, it didn't matter, as long as the mission was a success.

All that just to say that I was gently and quietly walking on the path, along with Mudkip. After going through a few plains, we went across a deep forest, way bigger than the Tiny Woods. But we made no bad encounter there, fortunately…

Finally, after some time, the vegetation seemed to fade little by little and we arrived in a completely different ecosystem. The land was still flat, but the forest had just disappeared. Totally. The trees had vanished, thus allowing Mudkip and I to have a better view of the blue sky, but also of the mountains which had suddenly appeared from nowhere. Obviously, we'd been close to the mountains for a long time already, but the forest, with its majestuous trees, kept us from catching sight of them. The path was still going on, in a straight line, heading for a granite massif that was rising in the sky, with a flat top, like a filed peak.

"Oh! I think we're reaching it!"

Mudkip's sentence revigorated me somehow. Our walk had been very boring until then and I was feeling a true and impatient haste to reach our destination. As I kept walking, I kept an eye on the gray massif that was getting closer and closer with each step we were making.

Finally, I spotted a hole at the mountain's foot. That was likely the entrance of the said cave. And in front of that entrance, two weird Pokémon were floating in the air. Two metallic spheres with magnets on each side and a big Phillips screw coming out of the top of their round body. I quickly took into account that those were our two clients, Magnemite and Magnemite. Whew, what a relief… Our long walk was over… But another one was about to begin…

The two Magnemite turned around and saw us arriving.

"Oh, there you are!" they exclaimed in chorus.

They were visibly happy to see us. And that's not something easy to notice in Magnemite, since they only have a single eye which occupies most of their body's space. But they were happy and that was visible: small lightning bolts were sparkling on their magnets and both of them were moving quickly up and down, thus showing their state of excitment. Moreover, their eye was closed, which only strengthened my statement.

But their excitement quickly ceased to be and the two Magnemite took their seriousness back on.

"Our two friends, Magnemite and Magnemite, are at the bottom of this cave…" said one of the Magnemite, with a screeching and metallic voice.

"They're stuck together." added the other Magnemite, with the same kind of voice, "They have to be rescued."

"We have come for this." Mudkip answered. "We're Team Orange."

"Great!" our two clients replied.

"So, both of your friends are stuck at the bottom of this cave?" I asked, while looking at the entrance dug into the rocks.

"Yes. But there are some dangerous Pokémon inside. You should be careful…"

"Oh, don't you worry." Mudkip replied. "I'm pretty sure we're gonna be fine. Won't we, Charmander?"

I turned to my friend, with an uncertain look printed on my face. Mudkip seemed to be confident, but I couldn't say the same thing about me. I appeared to smile, without showing any kind of conviction. After all, it was only my second day as a Pokémon… I owned some special powers within myself, but I was far from mastering them yet. My fight against the Pidgey on the previous day had been tough… And Pidgey are known to be some very weak Pokémon. So, how I could predict how good I would do inside that cave? Magnemite and Magnemite were telling us that were some dangerous Pokémon… But which kinds of Pokémon? Would they be as tough as our two clients were making us understand? Thinking about all of that… Yes, I was definitely nervous…

"So, we're going, Charmander?"

"Uh, I guess we are…", my voice was slightly trembling, reflecting the stress within.

"Very well! Let's go!"

Mudkip went forward with a resolute step toward the cave's entrance and I cautiously followed him, still carrying our toolbox. Then, we finally entered into the rock hollow.

* * *

As soon as we were inside, a weird feeling got a hold of me. Some kind of persistent itching at several spots on my body. That was irritating, but not painful. The air also seemed to be heavy. That was only when I remembered the Magnemite letter that I understood what was happening:

_An important wave of electromagnetic energy has suddenly flowed into Thunderwave Cave._

It was clear by then. That continuous itchy feeling… It was some static electricity… The air was still charged with some kind of electric energy and it was affecting both Mudkip and me. I was able to somehow stand that uncomfortable atmosphere wrapping me, but apparently, that was not the case for Mudkip… His step turned slow and he seemed to stagger at some moments. Water-type Pokémon hardly stand electricity, so the situation should have been very tough for my partner. I got closer to him and stood to his right.

"Mudkip? Are you OK?"

"Not as much as I'd like. I don't feel very good, Charmander."

"It's the air surrounding us, Mudkip. The air is full of static electricity…"

"Yes… I can feel it…"

"Are you gonna be able to hold it out, Mudkip?"

My partner looked at me with a forced smile: "As long as it will be necessary, Charmander…"

It was no use for my partner to smile, I knew he wasn't feeling good. Oh, he wasn't sick, but I could sense his lack of comfort in this place… Poor guy, I wouldn't have liked to be him at that moment…

We kept going forward inside the cave, without encountering anybody. We seemed to be alone there. No sign of Pokémon anywhere…

"It looks like we're the only ones here, Mudkip…"

"Indeed. I don't sense any presence nearby…"

I got hooked by his last sentence.

"Excuse me. What do you mean by _sense _?"

"The fin on my head, Charmander… It is very sensible. It can detect any movement in the air. So, if anybody is getting closer or standing nearby, I can detect its presence…"

"Oh…"

Everything was getting clear, now. In the Tiny Woods, Mudkip had been able to detect the Pidgey arrival… And he had been able to locate Caterpie in the forest… He was able to detect the presence of other Pokémon with his head fin… Yes, everything became clear…

"So…", I said, "You don't sense anything right now?"

"No… But the air is really unstable… I can barely concentrate…"

I had no trouble believing him. Mudkip was in an almost confused state, so his ability to probe the atmosphere should have been seriously affected by the electric particles spread into the air since our entry.

The path we were following then took a sharp turn toward the left. We barely made the turn when a Rattata charged right into me.

The impact made me move backward, just slightly. I had been destabilized, but I didn't fall down. The Rattata's arrival totally surprised me. I didn't hear it coming at all. And Mudkip hadn't warned me neither. I had the feeling it was true: the unstable air had an impact on my friend's detecting abilities.

If the crash hadn't been much severe to me, I couldn't say the same thing for the Pokémon which had just charged into me. The Rattata fell backward and onto his back. It fidgetted vigorously and quickly got back on its four legs. Our looks crossed. Its red eyes were glaring at me. The Rattata was visibly upset and it showed me its two prominent front teeth, just to warn me that it was about to strike back against me. The mouse Pokémon took a step or two backward and then launched itself into the air, charging in my direction. Instinctively, I reached for the toolbox that I was carrying and quickly hold it in front of me. Everything went extremely quick.

I didn't see the collision, but I felt it real good. The solid box was shaking in my hands. When I lowered it, I found out the Rattata laying on its back, on the rocky ground. It was totally knocked out. It wanted to attack with Tackle, but it launched head first into the toolbox. The shock must have been terrible. The poor Rattata would be seriously fuzzy when we would wake up.

"Whoa…" Mudkip muttered, having witnessed the entire scene without doing anything.

"Yeah…" I answered. "Poor thing… I just hope he didn't damage our box…"

OK, it wasn't the most intelligent statement I could utter, but I really wanted to say something to calm things down after what had just happened. I examined the box, just to make a following to the statement I had just pronounced…

"No, it looks fine…"

"I really didn't feel it coming…" Mudkip said, almost sheepishly, "I really don't know what happened…"

"Don't worry, Mudkip. I have a good feeling that the unstable air prevented you from feeling it."

"I guess you're right… We're gonna have to be very careful."

Mudkip and I kept going forward, following the straight path. We walked for a few minutes, when our path finally lead us inside a large room. But once in that room, we found out that there were two other paths starting from where we were standing. One of them was going frontward and made a direct connection with the one we had just taken. But another path went right to the east. It crossed with the other path in a perpendicular fashion. But we didn't know which one of them paths would lead us to the Magnemite…

"What do we do now, Mudkip?"

"I don't really know… There must be one path that would lead us to the bottom of the cave, but I don't know which one…"

"We're gonna have to take a guess on one of them…"

"Indeed. It's a roll of dice… In the worst case, we'll head back and take the other way…"

I nodded. That was the logical solution. That wasn't the kind of situation you would dream of, but we had to deal with that.

"Charmander? Did you hear something?"

I looked at Mudkip.

"No. Did you hear something?"

"I… I'm not sure, but I think I've just heard something coming out from this way." he told me, pointing to the eastern path.

I pricked my ear, to try to get a hold of the noise that Mudkip felt he had just heard… Well, pricking my ear may not be the most appropriate term when you speak about Charmander, but I made the same move anyway.

I sensed a light high sound, and brief, with an echo just as brief. Then another. Slightly louder. And another one… Even louder… There was no doubt : whatever was making that noise, it was getting closer…

Standing in front of the room's open space, from where the sounds were emanating, I slightly moved backward, in the rocky wall's direction. Mudkip did the same. I was sure he was thinking the same thing as me. The source of the noise would soon appear.

The sound was getting clearer. It was some kind of barking or yelping. The Pokémon making that noise was really close. That's when we saw a Poochyena lurking out of the shadowy space and sitting in front of us. It looked calm and very confident. But it wasn't alone. A second Poochyena emerged from behind and sat right beside the first one, in the very same position.

The situation suddenly became tougher. There were two Poochyena in front of us and the look in their eyes told me that they had an interest in Mudkip and me. It became even more obvious when both Pokémon went back on their four legs and slightly bent forward, ready to jump. The hair on their tails bristled. It was clear now. Those two Poochyena definitely wanted to have some fun with us…

I didn't dare to look at Mudkip. When a Poochyena spots its prey, it won't let it go. I wasn't going to be an easy prey for the Poochyena in front of me, but I had to remain vigilant. It probably had no reason to attack me, but it's in the nature of this Pokémon to attack.

"Mudkip…?" my voice was nervous, "You can handle yours…?"

"Y-yes…" his voice was just as nervous.

The two Poochyena stepped forward. The look in their eyes was an agressive one and their eyes were burning, bright crimson red. I wanted to step back, but I knew I shouldn't. I had to show to the Pokémon in front of me that it wasn't scaring me. I wanted to spread some concern within its mind. I hardened my body and put myself in attack position.

The Poochyena jumped and tackled me right into my chest. I unleashed a muffled cry and fell heavily on my back. Instantly, my opponent sprang in the air and toward me. But my instincts took the best of me and I dodged it quickly before it could land on me. I put myself back on my feet and I tried to distance it, but it quickly began to run after me, barking menacingly at the same time. I didn't have the Toolbox on my shoulder anymore, having put it off after my fall. I was running in circles, being unable to shake it off or to strike back. As for the Poochyena, it tried to bite me or to grip me with its fangs. I thought it aimed for my tail. I was still running, but my foe wouldn't let me go away.

Without warning, I tried to jump into the air as I was running. I sprang not very high, but that was the idea. Once in the air, I quickly spun around and as I was going down, I saw that the Poochyena was studying my movements. The moment was favourable. Once I was at eye-level, I unleashed a Scratch attack, right between its eyes.

As I landed, I saw the Poochyena yelping and quickly taking a few steps back. It stopped attacking me and shook its head frantically, trying to chase the pain I had just inflicted to it. I attacked with Scratch a second time, hitting its nose. The Poochyena yelped once again and moved back a little more. It was getting closer to the room's rocky wall. I was about to attack one more time, but I saw my friend Mudkip instead, running at full speed into my opponent. A Tackle attack, which hurled the Poochyena against the rock. The fight was over.

Mudkip was panting. He looked at me.

"Mudkip?"

I took a look on the other side, the place where my friend came from. The other Poochyena was lying on the ground, nearly unconscious and unable to move.

"I'm finished already, Charmander…"

I looked back at my friend, who was smiling. I did the same.

"We should go now, before others come in…" Mudkip said.

"Yes, I agree…"

I quickly took back the Toolbox and we hastily left the room, leaving the two Poochyena behind. We took the first path. Taking the path from where the Poochyena came from was out of the question. We just hoped that we were taking the right path to reach the Magnemite…

And to our great relief, it happened to be…

A few minutes of walk later, the path grew larger and led into another large room, just like the first one. And that's where we saw them…

The two Magnemite were literally stuck to each other and they were shaking in a frenzy. But they were unable to get free of their unfortunate position. Bolts of lightning were beaming out from several spots on their bodies at the same time. Needless to say, that was strange enough…

The siamese Magnemite saw us enter in the grand room.

"Oh! Come and help us, please!"

"You… You are stuck together?" I asked, as I slightly got closer to them.

"Yes! Help us, we're begging you!"

Mudkip and I got closer to them. I looked at my pal with uncertain eyes. Then I examined the two soldered Magnemite and I hold out my hand. But as soon as my fingers touched the metallic body of one of the Magnemite, I got a poweful electrical shock.

"Aaaahhh!"

The shock instantly hurled me backward. An intense pain got a hold of me and paralyzed me for a few moments. Mudkip rushed to me.

"Charmander! Are you OK?"

I stood up with difficulty, the shock being still in effect. But I've been able to get back on my feet.

"Ohhh…" Needless to say, I was shocked.

"Oh my gosh! We're so sorry!" I heard the Magnemite say, "It's not our fault, really…"

Mudkip and I looked at them quietly. The bolts of lightning were still sparkling from every part of their bodies.

"I think we have a problem, Mudkip…"

"How are we gonna separate them if we cannot touch them?"

"That is the problem, indeed…"

"It must be all of this static electricity that keeps them stuck together…"

We were thinking about a possible solution, but that was not an easy situation. I opened the Toolbox to see if we had something to help us out, but there was nothing but the three Butterfree berries and our badges. But as I was watching the latter objects, an idea popped into my mind.

"I know, Mudkip. We're gonna teleport them away."

"Teleport them?"

"Yes, with our badges. If the problem really is the static electricity, by sending them away together, they should be able to get free, don't you think?"

Mudkip thought about it for a moment.

"We would send them away to Pokémon Square with our badges?"

"Yes. It could work, right?"

"It could, probably. Let's give it a try."

Mudkip took his badge in the box and I did just as well. I then put the box on the ground. Mudkip began to explain the situation to the unfortunate Magnemite.

"Hey, guys! We're gonna attempt something to separate you. We're gonna try to teleport you away."

"Te-teleport us?"

"That's right. You'll just have to look at our badges and we'll do the rest. That's OK for you?"

"But… Where are we gonna end up?"

"You're gonna get whisked to the Pelipper Post Office in Pokémon Square. But don't worry. You'll just have to stay there until we fetch you."

The Magnemite thought for a moment.

"OK, but just get us away from here, please!"

I turned my head to Mudkip, who did the same. We both gave a nod to each other. We raised our badges and hold them up toward the Magnemite.

"Ready?", Mudkip asked me.

"Ready."

I took a deep breath.

"Return!", we shouted together.

Instantly, a large yellow light beam spurt out of my badge, and of Mudkip's one as well. Both rays began to wrap up Magnemite and Magnemite. The light was intense, but I could see both Pokémon shine of the same light that was wrapping them. After a few seconds, both light beams faded away and both Magnemite had disappeared.

"Looks like it worked." I told Mudkip.

"We'll see… But we have to get out of here."

"Yes. But we just cannot teleport ourselves out of here, however…"

Mudkip looked at me.

"Why not?"

"Because we have to inform Magnemite and Magnemite at the cave's entrance, about their friends' present location."

"Oh… Yeah, you're right."

"Then, we'll just have to… retrace our own steps."

Mudkip sighed.

After putting our badges back into the toolbox, we turned around and resumed our walk on the reverse direction. We then had a clear idea of the time it would take us to reach the entrance and also of what the road would look like. But we were both hoping the same one thing: that we wouldn't make some unfortunate encounters this time…


	6. The Spectacle of My Dream

**AN: **I'm really sorry for not having uploaded a new chapter as quickly as I promised, but things have gotten out of my control here. I'm working more at my job and I'm searching for other jobs in my domain.

What's more, I'm working on another story, based on the second Mystery Dungeon games. I thought about uploading it after this one, but I couldn't stand to wait all this time, especially since I'm getting slow at new chapters with this one. The new story is gonna be called Goodbye Blue Sky and I'm planning to put it online in the next few days. So stay tuned...

Thanks to FallenVanguard and for reviewing.

* * *

**CHAPTER 6: THE SPECTACLE OF MY DREAM**

"Ahhh, home sweet home!"

The smell of burnt wood had spread through the whole house, even if the fire in the hearth wasn't burning as strongly as it was in the early morning, just before we left for our rescue expedition. That smell, a mix of smoke and embers, felt very soothing and reviving to me. That was indeed because I was a Fire Pokémon. That smell quickly became the characteristic feature of our Brick House. The perfume of our team…

And Mudkip didn't seem to be much annoyed by that smoke-filled atmosphere, which was probably due to the fact that he had been living in the Brick House for quite some time already. A simple question of adaptation, just like me and my new body.

"I'm really glad that our first mission was a success." said Mudkip with the appropriate tone.

"So am I," I replied, "and the Magnemite fellas looked real happy, too."

I put our Toolbox on the floor and we both had a look at all the stuff that was inside. There were three new elements in it: a second Rawst Berry, a Reviver Seed (as it was called), and a small bag containing 500 Pokés, the currency used in this world. We had received those three gifts from the Magnemite once they'd all been reunited. It was our reward for successfully carrying through our rescue mission. Looking back at those three objects in the box, I reminisced about how our expedition to Thunderwave Cave had its outcome…

* * *

After having successfully teleported the two Magnemite in distress away from the bottow of the cave, Mudkip and I set out our way back to the entrance. We had to inform the other two Magnemite that their friends had been shipped away from there. But we felt somehow anxious on our way back, because we knew that we could fall back on the two Poochyena we had encountered halfway through the cave. Quite fortunately, when we reached the room at halfway point, there was nobody there. The Poochyena had disappeared. They had probably run off to the place they originally came from, perhaps hoping to recover from the little thrashing we gave them. But what Mudkip and I were feeling at that moment was a deep feeling of relief. I really wanted to stay away from those dirty hounds this time and Mudkip felt exactly the same way. But we had been lucky. We encountered no wild Pokémon on our way back. A ray of light penetrating from the cave's entrance appeared in front of us, thus showing that our walk was close to being over. The Magnemite were still there, waiting for us, but when they saw only Mudkip and me getting out of the cave, a slight feeling of doubt flowed through their minds.

"Have you found our friends?" one of the Magnemite asked us, with a slightly nervous voice. And when a Magnemite speaks nervously, its voice sounds like a very shaky metallic sound wave, much like a cracked tuning fork. That's not a much enjoyable sound to hear, to say the least.

"Yes. They're fine." Mudkip answered, "But the rescue didn't happened the way we planned…"

"Where are they?" the other Magnemite asked, on a similar shaky tone, which made my eardrums tremor. I was then hoping for one thing : either those Magnemite would shut up, or either they would get over it and start talking normally.

"We had to teleport them away." Mudkip said, "They're at Pokémon Square. And we're gonna catch up with them, if you please."

"Oh yes! Oh yes! Let's go!" both Magnemite said together, with a more bearable voice.

In less time than it takes to say it, we were all on the way back to Pokémon Square. We were walking much faster than on our way in, since the Magnemite were flying in front of us, with the eagerness of seeing their friends again. I was already exhausted from our little excursion inside Thunderwave Cave, so I wondered if I would be able to keep that pace until everyone was reunited.

Fortunately for me and my young Charmander legs, we didn't have to go all the way through to Pokémon Square in order to gather the Magnemite together, but rather in front of our home. As we were getting closer to our Brick House, we saw the two rescued Magnemite coming in, in front of us. They had visibly decided that they didn't want to wait for us in front of the Pelipper Post Office.

"Oh, there you are! There you are!" the Magnemite all exclaimed together.

The four magnet Pokémon placed themselves into a circle and began to make some kind of round, while still hanging up in the air, moving clockwise. They were spinning really fast, surely propelled by the joy and the relief of finally meeting again. One thing for sure, at the speed they were moving, I was definitely about to forget who were the clients and who were the rescued ones.

* * *

"Do you remember their little dance, Mudkip? I almost got dizzy."

"Yes. But I especially remember at which point they seemed to be happy. That's very heart-warming, don't you think, Charmander?"

"Oh… Well, it goes without saying…"

Mudkip was truly a die-hard optimist. He seemed to only see the nice things in life and his only goal in his life seemed to make others happy or trying to cheer them up. That was undoubtedly the reason why he was so eager to form a rescue team with me. That was his occasion to spread happiness and to bring back the sunlight in the hearts of many Pokémon.

The evening was slowly coming up and the Sun began to fade away into the horizon outside the house. But Mudkip and I didn't intend to wait for the moon to rise into the night sky before getting to bed. The day had been truly exhausted for both of us. Fatigue got the hold of our bodies and our spirits, well before we even got back home. My eyelids were heavy. I had a burning desire to sleep.

"I'm tired, Mudkip. I think I'm gonna go to sleep right away."

I put our toolbox on the stone table and headed right toward our straw heap. But Mudkip called for me before I took place :

"Charmander? I think it would be better if we put a log inside the hearth. If we don't, the fire might go out."

"Good idea. Let's do this."

There were two piles of logs, one on each side of the hearth, and each one was as tall as the other. I headed for the logs on the right side and pointed out the log that seemed to be the easiest to take. But when you are a Charmander and a Mudkip trying to carry a piece of wood from a point A to a point B, that's not as easy a task as you might believe. Mudkip was walking on all fours, so he would need to lift up the log on his head. That was not something difficult for him, since Mudkip have much more physical strength than their physiology could make believe. As for me, I had to use both of my hands to help for the log transport. Together, Mudkip and I carried the log from the pile all the way to the hearth and finally sent it inside. I blew on the embers created by the fire which had burned all day long and slowly, new flames appeared and began to get a hold of the piece of wood we had just sent inside the hearth.

"Do you think that would be enough for the night?" I asked Mudkip.

"We'll see… But I really want to sleep now. You come with me?"

"Yes… With pleasure."

Mudkip quickly took his place inside the bed. I did too, although I had to make sure (once again) that I wouldn't set fire to the straw in the process… I guessed that in a couple of days, that precautionary move would become an habit and I wouldn't have to worry eventually about the damage I could cause with my fire-tipped tail.

I lied down on my back, my eyes facing the roof. There was still some light outside and it was getting through the windows in the dome. Mudkip was already asleep. And a few minutes after, I would be slowly getting to Dreamland as well.

* * *

I had a funny dream that night. Actually, I couldn't even say if it was really a dream, because nothing seemed to happen. That was a tough vision to explain, if not to conceive.

There was no scenery and no surroundings. Only a green light that was covering all of what my eyes could see. There was nothing but that light. That green screen was shining and turning pale intermittently, until it went white. And gradually, the white light was turning back to green. There was nothing but that. A scenery of light going from green to white and white to green.

In the middle of all of this, I saw a silhouette progressively appearing. Initially black, the silhouette was slowly getting coloured and I could easily discern what it was with some amazement : it was a Charmander.

"Where am I" the Charmander said, "What is this?"

It was my voice. There was no doubt about it: the Charmander standing right over there, in the middle of the light field, had my voice. No need to draw a picture : the Charmander that was in my dream was none other than me.

I could only see no-one but me, in my new Pokémon body. But the most amazing thing about the dream is that I was watching everything from an external point of view. External and fixed. Just like if I was seeing my dream in a television screen and I was watching myself. To be honest, it wasn't a dream… It was the spectacle of my dream…

The Charmander got a quick glance all around him, only to realize that he was alone. It was only when he turned around that I could see his face which was actually mine. It was an authentic Charmander face : his big blue eyes moved apart from each other, two small nostrils and a big mouth inside of which I could spot four prominent fangs apart from his other teeth. The head was almost perfectly oval-shaped, flat and smooth, and no visible ears. It was kinda weird, since I had never seen my new face before. And by staring at it this way, there was no doubt now : I really was a Charmander. Really. Physically…

The Charmander turned to the infinite horizon. Something seemed to grab his attention.

"Who's there? What's happening?"

He was talking to nobody. Well, at least, it didn't seem like there was anybody there. What could he have sensed?

The Charmander walked toward the horizon. God only knows what he was walking to. But he was definitely seeing something, because he wasn't walking like a Pokémon simply wandering into the unknown. He was staring at some invisible thing and was aiming for it, whatever it was.

"Hey! Who are you?" he said.

And then suddenly, an intense white light filled the whole vision of my dream before going away into the dark. That could only mean one thing : the dream was over.

* * *

I opened my eyes, all shook up by the dream I'd just made. That was one dream I would not soon forget. The sun had risen and the sky was getting clearer and clearer outside. It was quite early. But I wasn't able to get back to sleep.

I got up. Mudkip was still peacefully asleep, with a large grin on his face. He was surely having a really pleasant dream. I was hoping at least that his wasn't as weird and strange as mine.

I couldn't explain why, but my first reaction was to head to the granite pitcher standing beside the table, which was containing some fresh water. By leaning above the open side of the jug, I could see my own reflection in the water, just like if it was a mirror. That's when I saw my face. It was the same as in my dream : an authentic Charmander face, with all the characteristics I could recognize. This time, it was true : I had just truly seen my Pokémon face for the first time.

I was totally awake now and I wondered what I could do. Mudkip was still asleep and I didn't want to wake him up. After all, he had let me sleep on the previous morning, so waking him up would have been a very coarse thing to do. I took a look outside and I saw our mailbox. So I decided to check out if we had some mail…

* * *

**AN**: I know this chapter is quite short, but I really wanted to upload it before you guys begin to think I gave up on the story.


	7. Square People

**AN**: Once again, I'm sorry for not updating faster, but I have a good excuse this time: I've just begun a new story and I'm writting it at the same time as _Team Orange_. My new story is titled _Goodbye Blue Sky_ and it is based on the second series of _Pokémon Mystery Dungeon_ games. I already have two chapters online and I'm encouraging you to check it out.

* * *

**CHAPTER 7: SQUARE PEOPLE**

The fresh smell of the morning dew penetrated into my nostrils as soon as I put my feet outside the house. It was a very soothing sensation and it felt good to me. I liked to feel the purity of the morning under the cloud-less skies, as they often are when the days are just beginning. The surroundings seemed to be oddly calm. It seemed that the majority of the other Pokémon weren't up yet. But that silence seemed strange to me nevertheless… Or maybe it was just something I made up in my head… Since I had become a Pokémon myself, everything I saw looked different to me. Even what might look extremely banal to many.

I slowly headed toward the mailbox, which was close to the brick wall surrounding the house. As soon as I got next to it, I heard a flapping of wings which sounded familiar. I turned my head and saw the mail guy heading for our mailbox.

"Hey, Pelipper!"

The Pelican Pokémon landed on the mailbox and glanced at me.

"Well, good morning, Charmander! You seem to be up early today, aren't you?"

Some kind of weird discomfort went through my whole body as he said those words.

"Well… To be honest, I had a very odd dream last night and… It's still going through my head and I'm unable to go back to sleep."

"Oh…"

I clearly knew what the expression on Pelipper's face meant: he was slightly sorry about my present situation, but he felt like he had to switch subjects very quickly. And that's what he did.

"So I heard that your rescue mission at Thunderwave Cave went well yesterday. Is that right?"

I remained silent for one second or two before answering:

"Well, we had a few hitches, but overall, we accomplished our mission. I guess that's the most important thing…"

Pelipper smiled:

"You got by nicely. And now, you have officially broken the ice… Keep on going like that, you're on your way."

"Thank you, Pelipper. Have you got any mail for us, today?"

Pelipper looked pensive. This uncertainty in his eyes was not a good sign. Pelipper opened his large bill, which contained a couple of envelopes, and checked each one of them attentively. After a few moments, he closed his bill and glanced back at me:

"Sorry, I don't have anything for Team Orange today…"

"Oh…"

"But it's not a big deal. You can always go to the post office and check out the job offers on our billboard…"

I wasn't really sure about what Pelipper was talking about, but I acted up like I understood.

"OK, then. I'm going to chat Mudkip about it…"

"Very well," Pelipper answered.

Pelipper began to flap his wings and slowly rose up in a vertical way. And then, he stopped in his rise and flew on the spot in mid-air.

"Maybe you'll have more luck tomorrow. Anyway, if I get anything for you, I'll go rise the flag of your mailbox. See you, amigo!"

"See you!"

And so, Pelipper left to pursue his early mail tour. I was obviously disappointed that Pelipper had left nothing for us and I was certain that Mudkip would be even more disappointed than I was. But at the same time, I was sure that we would find something else to do…

Almost as soon as Pelipper was gone, I heard a voice coming by behind me:

"Charmander!"

I turned around and I saw Mudkip getting out of the house and run to me quite speedily. He seemed to be in a very good mood.

"Wah, you're up early today, Charmander!"

Mudkip had no idea, but he was the second Pokémon to tell me this in a lapse of only a few minutes. I prefered to keep his comment silent, although I gave a light smile.

Mudkip gave a quick look at our mailbox and saw that the little flag fixed on it was still down.

"Do you know if Pelipper has come already?," Mudkip asked me, his eyes still staring at the mailbox.

"Yes," I answered, "He came only a few moments ago."

Mudkip's eyes went back at me. He looked slightly worried.

"Oh? And he didn't have anything for us?"

"Nope," I answered, "Nothing at all."

As I expected, disappointment fell instantly on my companion. The look on his face made it quite obvious. Mudkip's reaction was exactly like the one I dreaded he would have.

"Ohhh… That's really too bad…," he said slowly, with a low voice, "But we are a new team… Maybe we're not sufficiently known for the moment..."

"Pelipper told me about a billboard at the Post Office where there would be job offers. Does it sound familiar to you?"

Mudkip's answer came in a hurry:

"Oh yes! It's true! There are always job offers put up on the billboard at Pelipper Post Office. There might be one we could work on today."

I felt some kind of relief. That wouldn't be a day we would waste doing nothing.

"So," I said, "are we going there right away?"

"Yes," Mudkip answered eagerly, "I can't wait to see what today has in store for us. Let's go to the Post Office!"

"Which way is it?"

"It's eastward. We have to get through Pokémon Square… Hey, wait a second! You haven't seen Pokémon Square yet, have you, Charmander?"

"Uh… No. Not yet…"

"Oh, well it's time for you to discover it! I'll give you a quick visit of Pokémon Square before we go to Pelipper Post Office. Is that OK for you?"

Mudkip seemed to be quite insistent. I would feel bad not to accept his offer. And after all, that Pokémon Square sounded like a very important place to know. I guess I would have to see that place one day or another…

"OK. Let's do that."

"Awesome," Mudkip looked very happy about my answer, "But before we go, we should bring our Toolbox with us. I think we're gonna have to make a few stops along the way…"

I didn't know what Mudkip was talking about, but I trusted him. After all, he knew this world far more than I did and he had to know what places there were in Pokémon Square and what those few stops would be. So I went back into our house and got our Toolbox. Then, I went back outside, with the strap of the box firmly gripped on my shoulder.

"You ready to go, Charmander?"

"I'm right behind you, Mudkip."

* * *

The colors of the day were progressively getting displayed before my eyes. The dew had now faded away. The morning dew is like a wild beast in the woods: as soon as you spot it, it seems to flee. The sky was wearing its most beautiful blue outfit, without any visible white spots. The day had officially woken up.

The day before, I had seen what was on the western side of the Brick House, although not much of it. On the eastern side, there were trees lined up on both sides of the path for some distance. I couldn't say it was for a short distance, but I couldn't say it was for a long one either. Anyway, that distance was long enough for the path to take a few curves among the trees.

I was blindly following my friend and guide Mudkip, without saying anything. I hadn't anything important to tell him or ask him. I could obviously have told him about the weird dream I made, but of what use would it be? If I couldn't explain what my dream meant, how could Mudkip possibly do it for me? Besides, everybody makes funny dreams one night or another. So, why would I worry about it, anyway?

We got to a section of the path where there weren't any trees anymore. The woods they were forming just stopped right there. And in front of us, there was a bridge spanning a small river. It was a wooden bridge, made of large logs and the extremities were laying on each side of the river. There were small wood supports on each edge of the bridge that were probably used as parapets. The bridge wasn't very long and the river flowing below was neither deep, nor threatening, but that structure was essential nevertheless for allowing everybody to cross the river safely.

I wondered however if such a wooden bridge was as solid as it looked. I got the answer as soon as I put my foot on it. I heard no sound coming from the bridge. The logs weren't moving one bit. That bridge was indeed as solid as it looked. And it had to be, because some Pokémon are truly heavy. I had no idea what kinds of Pokémon were using that bridge on a daily basis, but you cannot take any risks with this kind of structure. You never know who could use it. That's why that bridge had probably been designed to support the weight of the most massive Pokémon.

As soon as we had crossed the bridge, I spotted a big white building, shaped like a giant cube, nearby. The building seemed to be made from large bluish-white cement blocks. The side of the edifice facing the street was open and there seemed to be some kind of terrace with a multicoloured awning hanging from above. Mudkip seemed to know about that place.

"Ah, I think I'm spotting our first stop, Charmander…"

I kept looking at the white building.

"You're talking about that white edifice, right? What is it?"

Mudkip looked at me:

"This is the Kecleon Shop. They're selling all kinds of things to rescue teams. Let's go there…"

At this point, the path was bordered by a fence made of wood pickets, with a small space between each of them. A gap in the fence opened on an alley allowing us to reach the shop. By getting closer to the building, I discovered that the terrace was actually some kind of counter. And behind that counter, there were two Pokémon who were working on something, I couldn't say what. Both Pokémon were identical, except that one of them was green-coloured and the other one was purple-coloured. They suddenly turned around and saw us coming by.

"Ah! Customers!," they cheered together, in a single voice.

Mudkip and I got closer and stopped in front of the counter. It was almost as high as me and the two Pokémon were much taller than I was. About one foot taller than me. They had to lean forward in order to talk to us.

"Welcome to our shop, my friends!," the green Pokémon said, on a welcoming tone.

"You are our first customers today!," his purple twin said, with the same voice.

"Hi, Kecleon and Kecleon!," Mudkip answered.

"Hello! What can we do for you today?," the green Kecleon asked.

"We came to visit," Mudkip answered, "My friend Charmander and I have just formed a rescue team and we have decided to see hot spots in Pokémon Square for rescue teams."

"You… You are a new team?," the purple Kecleon asked.

"Yes, we are a new team. We're Team Orange."

Both Kecleon gave themselves a look, before turning back to us with a large smile on their faces.

"This is great!," the green Kecleon exclaimed, "We always love to see new teams! We are always glad to have new customers!"

"So here, you're gonna find anything you'll ever need for your rescue missions. We have quality merchandise at prices you won't find anywhere else."

I talked for the first time:

"What kind of merchandise?"

"We have accessories, food, potions, and even TMs…"

"TMs?," I said, "What are those?"

Mudkip gave me the answer:

"TMs are Technical Machines. Those are objects that can teach Pokémon new moves they couldn't normally learn on their own. TMs are really useful objects, but… I've heard they're also really expensive…"

Mudkip turned to the two storekeepers with a questioning look upon his face. The Kecleon looked slightly puzzled by Mudkip's statement.

"Well… Obviously, TMs are a bit expensive, but those are very rare objects…," the purple Kecleon explained, "Rarity creates value, you know..."

Mudkip smiled:

"Of course. But I don't think we need TMs for the moment… Thanks, Kecleon and Kecleon. We might come back shopping soon."

Mudkip and I turned to leave, but the two storekeepers stopped us:

"Oh, wait a moment, friends!"

We turned back again. The two Kecleon lowered and seemed to look for something inside their counter. When they got back up, each of them had an apple, which they held out to us with a smile.

"We are always offering something to new rescue teams. Take these apples. It's our gift to you, Team Orange."

Mudkip and I gave ourselves a puzzled look.

"You give us these apples for free?," Mudkip asked.

"Absolutely. Take them."

Mudkip and I were delighted. I got next to the counter and the purple Kecleon lent me the apple he was offering me. I took it and put it immediately inside the Toolbox. I did the same thing for the apple that the green Kecleon was offering me.

"Thank you, Kecleon and Kecleon."

"It's a pleasure," the green Kecleon answered to me, "See you next time, fellas. We hope to see you again very soon."

"Goodbye!," Mudkip and I answered in a single voice.

* * *

As soon as we took back the path leading to Pelipper Post Office, I could already see many Pokémon around. The path was leading into a large crossroads, looking like a big central square.

"Pokémon Square," I thought.

Mudkip kept on guiding me and we kept on walking straight in front of us. We only made a few steps when Mudkip turned left, heading for a new building.

The edifice had a striking resemblance to our Brick House. It had about the same size and the same round shape. But this building was not made of brick. It was built up with white rock. The roof was covered with a thick green foliage. From a distance, one could have said that the place looked like a turnip half buried into the ground.

"This is Felicity Bank," Mudkip said to me.

In front of the bank, there was some kind of counter as well. And behind that counter, there was a Pokémon waiting for us. A Pokémon of good size, tan-coloured, only a bit darker than the bank itself. It has large round ears, a red pearl in the middle of its forehead, and piercing eyes. It was standing straight behind its counter, like a sentinel. Despite its discreet smile, this Pokémon kinda gave me the creeps.

As soon as it saw us arriving, the look on the Pokémon's face became more comforting and more welcoming.

"Welcome to Felicity Bank," the Pokémon said, with a feline voice. I was a bit surprised to see that this Pokémon was actually a female. "What can I do for you?"

Mudkip spoke first:

"We'd like to open an account. We are a new rescue team."

"Oh, really?," she answered, "In this case, I think it would be convenient if I introduced myself: my name is Persian. I am the owner and the manager of the bank."

"Nice to meet you, Persian," Mudkip replied, "We are Team Orange. I am Mudkip and this is my partner, Charmander."

I made a greeting gesture toward Persian, who looked delighted.

"Pleased to meet you, guys. So, you want me to keep an eye on your money? I'm gonna take the utmost care of it. Your money will be in good hands here."

"We already some money with us," Mudkip said. Then, he turned to me:

"Charmander, could you give Persian the bag that the Magnemite gave us?"

On the day before, the Magnemite we had rescued gave us a bag containing 500 Poké as a reward. I opened the toolbox, grabbed the bag and lent it to Persian. She took it in her paws with great caution.

"Then it's settled. I still have some space for you in the bank. You can rest safe. Your money is safe here. Nobody has never stolen from me here. Many have tried to…," the look on her face became more serious, "But nobody has never done it… I have never let anybody take a hand over my clients' money."

I listened to Persian talking and I was convinced she would be able to do it. She was talking in an almost threatening voice. If I was a bit troubled, Mudkip didn't look worried at all. Actually, he was smiling.

"I'm sure we're doing a good deal. Thanks for taking care of our money, Persian."

"It's my job and my pleasure, guys."

"Thanks, Persian. Bye."

"Have a nice day, Team Orange."

Mudkip and I left the place. Mudkip took me back to the crossroads. I took that opportunity to whisper something to my companion:

"Persian looks obliging, for sure… But don't you find her a bit odd?"

"She's taking her job seriously. There is so much money inside her bank that many ill-intentioned Pokémon are tempted to rob from her. But Persian can become very fierce and she is much stronger than she looks like. Everybody who tried to rob from Persian have failed… Because Persian beated them all…"

"Oh…"

Memo to myself: never put Persian in a bad mood.

"Where are we going, now?"

"Well… There are two places left to see. The first one is Gulpin Link Shop, but it's simply to give you a look of it. We have nothing at Gulpin's shop for the moment…"

"What's that Gulpin doing?"

"Gulpin owns many strange machines. He apparently uses them to teach new moves to Pokémon…"

"TMs?"

"Yes. It's Gulpin who owns the stuff that is necessary to make TMs work. He also owns many other things, but… To be honest, I don't know much about him."

As we were talking, Mudkip and I were slowly walking on the path leading southward. At this point, there were two parallel paths, separated from each other by a narrow line of trees. Right after the latter ended, another path cut the other two in a perpendicular fashion. Mudkip motioned me to turn left on this new avenue. At the corner of both paths, I saw a high tower made of polished concrete, with a slightly smaller crown on top of it. There was some red foliage spread over the top of the tower. In front of the tower, there was a counter too, but there was no Pokémon behind it.

"That's what I thought," Mudkip said, "Gulpin doesn't seem to be there. Anyway, we didn't need to visit him today."

I was still staring at the top of the tower, which looked very high to me.

"Charmander, you're coming?"

Mudkip called me and got me out of my daydreaming. I quickly rejoined him.

"Sorry, Mudkip. What's left to see, now?"

Mudkip slowly looked at me, with a large smile.

"The only place left is the best one. We're going to see Auntie Kangaskhan!"

"Auntie Kangaskhan?"

"Yes. She's running the Warehouse. And she's super, super nice!"

Mudkip was hardly keeping still. He looked to be very impatient to go to the Warehouse run by that "Auntie Kangaskhan". Mudkip was walking at a quicker pace. He was almost running. The path seemed to stop in front of a very odd-looking building.

The Warehouse had the shape of a Kangaskhan, literally. It was huge. I had no idea of what it was made of, but the resemblance to Kangaskhan was striking. The top of the building was especially catchy. It was shaped like the head of Kangaskhan, with windows for eyes and another one at the top of the head. Even the ears and the "helmet" were recreated quite convincingly.

While we were getting closer to the Warehouse, I saw that the counter was built right into the building's structure. And behind that counter, I saw a huge Pokémon. It was very tall. It was at least three times my own size. And it looked exactly like the Warehouse's shape.

"It's Auntie Kangaskhan!," Mudkip exclaimed.

Just like the Kecleon, she looked like she was tidying or unwrapping things, I couldn't say. I could spot that there was an infant Kangaskhan inside her belly pouch.

She finally saw us coming by while we were still running.

"Ah, what am I seeing?"

Mudkip and I stopped in front of the counter. I had to lift my head up to see the face of the "Big Aunt".

"Hi, Auntie Kangaskhan!," Mudkip said.

"Good morning, sweeties. You look lively today," she said with a large smile.

"Oh yes! We were eager to come here, Auntie Kangaskhan!," Mudkip said, "We are a new rescue team, so we decided to begin by visiting the familiar spots of Pokémon Square."

"A new rescue team?," Auntie Kangaskhan asked, "Oh, isn't it fantastic? You must be very courageous to become a rescue team, my young friends…"

She looked at us for a few moments, then she leaned forward.

"I'm going to confide something to you," she whispered to us, "I see many rescue teams on a regular basis… But I've never seen a team with members as cute as you are…"

I couldn't help, but smile. It was a very touching, very heart-warming statement. Perhaps a bit childish, but nevertheless, her phrase made me happy. I began to understand why Mudkip was calling her "Auntie" Kangaskhan.

"This is my Warehouse," she explained, "I'm putting away what rescue teams consider as their most precious items and which they don't want to lose on their missions. I have space for everybody here."

"Would you have some space for us, as well?"

"Of course. I'm very well organized and I can keep you a space for you in my warehouse for you… Oh, I forgot to ask you: what is the name of your team?"

"We are Team Orange," Mudkip and I had answered together unwillingly, which made us laugh…

"Team Orange. Very well… Oh, Orange?"

Kangaskhan looked suddenly pensive. What could she be thinking about?

"Wait a minute, guys. I'll be back…"

Auntie Kangaskhan turned around and disappeared inside her warehouse. I glanced at Mudkip, who looked as puzzled as I was. Finally, Auntie Kangaskhan came back a few moments later with something in her hands. It looked like a piece of orange fabric.

"Take a look at this," she said, "It's a Defense Scarf. But it is orange… I think it would be suitable for one of you to wear it."

"You… You'd offer this to us?," Mudkip asked.

Auntie Kangaskhan smiled and nodded.

"Wah! Awesome! Could I have it?," Mudkip looked very excited about that orange scarf.

Because I was the tallest one, Auntie Kangaskhan lent me the scarf and I was about to give it to Mudkip, but he interrupted me:

"Charmander? Could you put it around my neck, please?"

"Of course, Mudkip."

Indeed, it would have difficult for Mudkip to put the scarf around his own neck and to tie it, but I did it myself single-handedly. I made a tight knot, so the scarf wouldn't untie from Mudkip's neck.

"It fits you quite well, Mudkip…," Auntie Kangaskhan said.

"Yeah, it's true…" I added.

"I wanna see myself! I wanna see myself!," Mudkip was literally bouncing on his spot.

Auntie Kangaskhan lent me a small mirror that she was probably keeping inside her counter. I put the mirror in front of Mudkip, so he could see as much of himself as possible. His reaction was spontaneous:

"Wow! I love it! I love it!"

Auntie Kangaskhan looked delighted.

"It's a pleasure, Mudkip."

"Thanks, Auntie Kangaskhan. Do you have something for Charmander as well?"

I gave a quick look to Mudkip, then I turned to Auntie Kangaskhan, who looked pensive.

"Um… Unfortunately, I don't think I have another orange scarf…"

"Oh, but anyway, I don't think that an orange-coloured scarf would fit me well… I mean, my skin is almost entirely orange, so the scarf wouldn't be much noticeable…"

I could hear Mudkip thinking. Maybe he was sighing at the same time.

"Maybe you're right, Charmander… But it would great if you had something too, as well. It would be more fair…"

Mudkip and I turned to Auntie Kangaskhan, who seemed to be thinking. I had no clue of what she was thinking about, but she definitely seemed to have something in mind.

"Oh! I think I have an idea!"

She leaned to talk, not to us, but to her child in her pouch.

"Hey, baby. Do you think we should give Charmander what we have found yesterday while we were cleaning up?"

"Oh?"

The small Kangaskhan didn't seem to understand what her mother meant. But Auntie Kangaskhan whispered something to its ears and the kid instantly understood.

"Oh yes! Oh yes!"

"That's just what I thought," Auntie Kangaskhan said, "Wait for me. I'll be back."

And once again, she disappeared inside her warehouse. I gave a puzzled look to Mudkip. I felt a light shiver going through my body. Just what did she have in mind for me?

She came back one minute later with something in her hands. I had trouble seeing what it was, but as Auntie Kangaskhan got closer, I finally discovered what it was.

"A… A hat?"

"Yes… I found it yesterday while cleaning up the warehouse. It doesn't belong to anyone anymore, but if you want it, I can give it to you. Would like to try it on?"

She lent it to me. It was a brown fedora hat, with a black trim going all around it. And it looked like it was the right shape for me. I took it from the hands of Auntie Kangaskhan with caution and I slowly put it on my head. It was the perfect size.

I glanced at Auntie Kangaskhan, who looked at me with a very satisfied smile.

"Aw, don't you look nice, Charmander. I knew it would fit you just fine."

I turned to Mudkip. His eyes and his mouth were wide open. He was staring at me.

"Mudkip?"

"Charmander… You look so cool, Charmander! So cool!"

I looked at myself with Auntie Kangaskhan's mirror. I saw my Charmander face with my hat reaching just above my eyes, covering the entirety of my bald head. As I kept staring at myself, I reckoned that Mudkip was right: I looked cool.

Delighted, I gave her mirror back to Auntie Kangaskhan.

"Thanks for everything, Auntie Kangaskhan!"

"It's a pleasure, sweeties. Now, go and carry out new missions… And show to the world what Team Orange is made of!"

She winked at us. I felt lively and full of energy. I had the sudden urge of rushing into new adventures with my new look. I turned to Mudkip:

"Final stop: the Post Office!"

"Indeed, Charmander! Let's go!"

"Good luck, my friends!," Auntie Kangaskhan told us, "Be careful and come back soon!"

"Bye, Auntie Kangaskhan!"

And so, we were definitely ready to launch into a new day of adventure…


End file.
